Nearly half of all aged care ‘site audits’ in the final quarter of 2019 found at least one of the new quality standards was ‘not met’, according to new data released by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Of the 173 site audits conducted between October and December 2019, 45 per cent identified a ‘not met’ standard.
By comparison, in the six months from July to December 2018, only 11.1 per cent of site audits resulted in a ‘not met’ finding.
And in the July–September quarter of 2019, just over one-third – 37.3 per cent – of all site audits identified a ‘not met’ standard.
New person-centred aged care quality standards were introduced in Australia in July 2019, and were a significant shift in emphasis for the sector. Aged care providers asked to put the ‘client’ at the centre of operations.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, Janet Anderson PSM, told HelloCare there has been an increase in non-compliance since the introduction of the new standards.
“The Aged Care Quality Standards were implemented on 1 July 2019. This represents a significant change in the performance data for the Commission’s Sector Performance Report,” she said.
“The first two quarters of the Aged Care Quality Standards have shown a higher rate of non-compliance with the requirements than was the case under the previous Accreditation Standards.
“Requirements under the new Standards have a stronger focus on outcomes for consumers and providers are expected to demonstrate that they understand and apply this in practice.
“The Commission has found a higher rate non-compliance as services adjust to the new settings.”
The change has coincided with a period of unprecedented scrutiny of the aged care sector, both in the media and from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission as well as the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
Both the new standards and a sharpened focus on the sector are likely to be the causes of the jump in non-compliance.
Ms Anderson said the commission has a range of tools it can use to ensure providers meet the requirements of the new standards, including education of providers, varying of the period of accreditation, revoking accreditation, further monitoring, making a plan for continuous improvement, monitoring return to compliance, and, in the most serious cases, imposing sanctions, or suspension or revocation of approval of an approved provider.
“It is important to note that it is not one size fits all,” Ms Anderson said. She said those providers who adopt a positive approach to improvement are treated differently to those more reluctant to adapt.
“Where non-compliance is found, we direct the provider to improve but the action we may take if a provider of a service demonstrates they are willing and able to comply and to take all reasonable steps to do so will be different from the escalating action to sanction a provider that cuts corners on quality and safety or deliberately avoids compliance obligations and, perhaps, places consumers at risk of harm,” Ms Anderson said.
The most common unmet standards were risk management, clinical care, and governance.
The number of complaints were down slightly, from 1,456 in the September 2019 quarter to 1,346 in the December 2019 quarter.
During the six months to December 2018, there were 2,614 complaints.
The most common complaint during the December quarter was medication management (427 complaints), which remains consistently at the top of the list. Personnel (318) was the second most complained about aspect of aged care, and personal and oral hygiene (315) the third most complained about aspect. Fall prevention and management (284) and consultation and communication (224) were fourth and fifth on the list.
How are aged care staff to know if they are carriers of Coronavirus? Are staff going to be be asked if they have been overseas recently. Or asked if they have been in contact with someone that has recently come from overseas? From what I have heard alot of people are coming into airports and there is no checking temperature or anything useful to guarantee they are ok? And how do you gage them when they don’t self isolate? Who is watching? With so many different nationalities working in aged care I do believe it could be a nightmare waiting to happen in our Aged Care facilities. There are still a load of visitors coming in to see their loved ones. Goodness knows who or where they may have had contact with. No symptoms is the worry as well. So they say children are carriers with little or no symptoms, but their relatives visiting may have been in contact with a child showing no symptoms. It just goes on and on!! God help all our elderly. I don’t think aged care facilities could manage if there was an outbreak. Who would want to work in a facility that has CV? Would they fill the place up with professional RNs or more overseas students? They may not want to work there as nobody would want to go home and spread anything to our loved ones. It would be a nightmare!!!
The big question is. Will staff be honest of their whereabouts or who they have been in contact with? Probably not in some cases as everyone needs money to pay the bills. Right? Aged care facilities need complete locking down. And now!! And the hiring of new staff stringently checked!