Hills developing dementia monitoring software, end-to-end solutions for health

ASX-listed Hills Ltd is currently conducting a trial with an aged care provider of a dementia monitoring platform it has developed as it works to integrate its Hills Health Solutions division back into the company following its aborted merger with patient entertainment vendor Lincor.

The Adelaide firm, which is involved in a legal stoush in the NSW Supreme Court with Sydney-based patient entertainment vendor Stellar Vision over the proceeds of a joint contract with Western Sydney Local Health District, is also working on developing end-to-end solutions for the aged care market and hospitals involving its nurse call, security, communications and audio-visual assets as it attempts to return to profitability.

Hills reported a net loss after tax of $7.9 million for the 2017 financial year and a decline in revenue from $328.9m to $298m. It remains confident that it will return to profitability in the next financial year.

Hills chairman Jennifer Hill-Ling said the company’s management had focused on positioning the company for growth over the last 12 months, with a strategy of integrating the Hills Health business into the company and investing in new initiatives such as the dementia software and the expansion of its BYOD patient engagement offerings.

The coming year will see it try to expand its current healthcare offering through adjacent solutions such as dementia monitoring and the development of end to end solutions for the health sector, focusing on aged care and hospitals, using the full range of Hills products and services.

Hills CEO David Lenz said this would involve establishing relationships with key integration partners to deliver the other aspects of the company’s portfolios such as security surveillance, audio visual, fire and asset management.

Hills recently integrated the security platform it distributes in Australia from Genetec with the nurse call platform and is deploying it at a health facility here to bring together call monitoring with video management.

In nurse call, it recently announced it had won a contract to supply a nurse call solution to the new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Victoria. It currently supplies a patient entertainment system to the existing Sunshine Hospital and is understood to be in a competitive tender to supply a new system to Joan Kirner Hospital when it opens last next year.

Hills currently supplies patient engagement services to the Angliss, Box Hill, Maroondah and Peter James Centre hospitals in Victoria and the Royal Prince Alfred, Concord, Canterbury, Northern Beaches and Balmain Hospitals in NSW.

Hills remains the exclusive distributor of the Lincor patient infotainment system, which is being used at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, despite the proposed merger being terminated in January.

“It may be argued that we should not have gone down the merger and IPO path given the distraction to management and the costs associated with it, but at the time we were provided with expert advice which indicated that a merger of our health business and Lincor would be financially attractive to our shareholders,” Ms Hill-Ling told shareholders at the company’s AGM last week.

“Hills continues as the exclusive distributor of the Lincor patient engagement solution in Australia and after a comprehensive strategic review of our health business, your board and management determined that shareholders would be better placed by Hills retaining the health business and continuing to invest in growth plans …”

Mr Lenz said the company had over 18,000 beds under management for the patient engagement services business and expects to see this grow to 20,000 beds this financial year.

It also has over 900 facilities running its Questek and Merlon nurse call solutions with $5 million worth of roll-outs on the books for FY 2018, and a potential pipeline of 275 facilities worth $44m.