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Seventeen years ago, Diana Horvatovic was flicking through the newspaper when an advertisement caught her eye and prompted her to reassess her career path: she decided to make a bold move into the unknown.
The ad was placed by the Federal Government, which was seeking professionals to regulate aged care providers and ensure they weren’t in breach of their responsibilities under the Aged Care Act.
As someone who deeply cared for and respected the elderly, Horvatovic was stirred to action.
“I applied and I was successful,” she tells The CEO Magazine.
Over the next 13 years, she advanced to the role of Director and completed a Master of Science (Dementia Care and Management) in the process. Then, while working as a regulator for a medium-size aged care provider, she was approached by St Basil’s Aged Care NSW & ACT to come on board as a consultant initially.
Horvatovic swiftly advanced and, in February this year, took on the role of CEO. By then, she had built up an intimate knowledge of the organization’s culture, mission and vision.
“I also had rapport and credibility with the internal and external stakeholders. I understood the challenges and opportunities for St Basil’s,” she says. “It was a great career opportunity to advance and serve in an organization that personally aligned to my beliefs and in an industry that I’m passionate about.”
The scope to make a difference at St Basil’s was significant, Horvatovic shares, both in terms of enhancing compliance and driving a greater focus on governance. Her aim was to deliver quality care while providing a good consumer experience.
“Having been an experienced regulator who has traveled across most of the states and seen the good, the bad and the ugly, it’s a privilege for me to be able to put all of that knowledge into creating an organization that actually has heart,” she reveals.
While Horvatovic could see that respect and compassion were present in generous measure throughout the organization, she also saw a need for more clarity around quality.
“The culture wasn’t as strongly aligned to the quality component because some of our homes were non-compliant,” she says. “And I think what the organization needed was clear leadership and somebody with strong governance experience.
“Often, staff just need guidance and support to deliver better outcomes.”
Placing great emphasis on leading by example therefore became a priority.
“So there’s a huge executive presence across all of our homes supporting our frontline staff where we also provide a culture of transparency and inclusiveness,” she says.
“That’s the culture change – being visible, being on the ground, exposing the executive team to the staff, who are the ones that matter the most because they’re the ones who deliver the quality care by listening to residents and meeting their needs and expectations, therefore showing we care.”
This visibility helped to build a community between board members, management and frontline staff as well as residents and their relatives.
“In an industry where you’re delivering direct care, you need to be visible,” Horvatovic stresses. “People need to know who you are.”
By shifting away from a top-heavy model and plunging its resources into the frontline staff, St Basil’s was better able to cater to the needs of those it cares for. It was also crucial to build the organization’s credibility with the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, founded in 2018, along with the community.
“Probably the biggest challenge is dealing with the uncertainty of the impact of aged care reforms in a highly regulated industry while trying to ensure financial viability, improve culture and deliver quality care,” she reflects.
“By achieving compliance, stabilizing and optimizing our core business, we set stronger foundations that prepare us for change and growth.”
According to Horvatovic, the role of St Basil’s in the community is clear – to support the individual needs of aging Australians, particularly Greek Australians.
“That means supporting them to grow meaningful relationships and enrich their lives through heritage and culture,” she explains. “We are a leading presence in the Greek and church community. We provide a wide range of services that adapt over time to our customers’ needs and wants.
“I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the respected members of the Board of Directors for their ongoing support and dedication to myself, the Executive and St Basil’s.”
These cater to the entire aging experience with independent living units, home care services, residential care and day centers. St Basil’s also offers services in clinical care, lifestyle, dementia, pastoral wellness and palliative care.
Ensuring it does all this while still delivering value for money in a sustainable way is also crucial.
“As a registered charity, all income earned is used to fund the provision of services and accommodation to aged Australians,” she says. “We’ve diversified with multiple revenue streams to supplement government funding and efficiently target government bequest and community funding sources, including all grants.”
Partnerships are carefully nurtured, such as those with Michael Vasili Chemist and McPhee Kelshaw Solicitors, to ensure all parties are working toward these shared goals.
With St Basil’s now in a much stronger position, Horvatovic can turn her attention to growth. Over the next few years, she plans to increase the organization’s presence in the community by expanding its network of home care and day centers across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, where a need for such services has been identified.
Longer-term, St Basil’s will also open additional residential aged care facilities and independent living facility units.
Although Horvatovic has only been in the CEO seat for around six months, there have already been many milestones, from rolling out compliance across its homes, reducing energy usage and building a stable workforce, to improving profitability, sustainability and credibility.
However, as Horvatovic reflects back on them all, her greatest achievement comes quickly to mind.
“The thing that I’m most proud of is being a strong role model for my daughters and other females, demonstrating that you can balance being a mother, wife and professional,” she says.
Having been a young mother to twin girls, she had put her career on hold, only embarking on this new path at the age of 32, when she came across that newspaper ad.
Now she remains committed to sharing her experience with other women, finding time beyond her busy schedule at St Basil’s to dedicate to this mission.
“To be able to do that and promote and mentor and support other females to do the best that they can is absolutely by far the thing I’m most proud of, apart from being a mother,” she reveals.
“If you believe in yourself and are motivated, dedicated and hardworking, you can achieve anything.”
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