Australia will have a new rating system for residential aged care services from 1 July 2020.
The ‘compliance rating’ will be published on the My Aged Care website with the aim of making it easier for families and older Australians to assess the quality of an aged care provider, and to make it easier to compare facilities.
The rating system has been developed by the Department of Health and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, with input from senior Australians, caregivers, providers and peak bodies.
The rating will reflect the provider’s “current compliance position”, a statement from the commission says. For example, it will show if a service has been sanctioned or has received a non-compliance notice, and will also reflect the facility’s most recent performance assessment by the Commission.
We believe the ratings will not be based on consumer feedback, they will be based purely on the Quality Commission’s audits and assessments. They will also not be based on a ‘star’ rating system, but rather on a colour-coded scale.
The rating system has been in development for some time. Though not the first to recommend some form of ‘rating’ system, in 2017 the Carnell-Paterson review noted a “striking feature” of Australia’s aged care system was a lack of reliable, comparable information about quality standards in residential aged care.
The review recommended the publication of “clear, readily intelligible information that includes some form of star rating against core standards”.
Last year, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety noted in its ‘Interim Report’ that Australia’s aged care system “lacks fundamental transparency”.
“There is very little information available to the public about the performance of service providers,” the report noted.
“The number of complaints against them are not published. The number of assaults in their services are not published. The number of staff they employ to provide care are not published. Participation by providers in the collection of a very limited set of performance indicators only became compulsory on 1 July 2019.”
The report noted The Department of Health’s intention to publish “differentiated performance ratings of residential aged care providers”, but said at that point there was still “no clarity” about what the system would look like.
The Interim Report also noted that the My Aged Care website “often” doesn’t provide “helpful information” about local aged care providers.
“Older people and their loved ones do not know what to look for when choosing a home.”
The rating system could move Australia towards a system more like that in the United States, where a significant amount of care and quality information about every aged care provider is available on the Medicare.gov website.
The ‘Nursing Home Compare’ site provides star ratings for every aged care facility, or ‘nursing home’ as they are called in the US. An overall rating is provided, as are ratings for health inspections, staffing, and quality.
The site also sets out the number of hours registered nurses, nurses aides and physical therapists spend per day per person with residents.
Information about hospitalisations, emergency department visits, falls, uses of antipsychotic medication, urinary tract infections, catheters and abuse can also be found for every home.
In the United Kingdom, the Care Quality Commission provides a summary of inspection findings on its website for all residential aged care facilities.
At the time of writing, no more information about Australia’s new aged care rating system has been made available to HelloCare, despite our request for further details.
I hope this will also state if the management team is different to when the facility was sanctioned. The facility I work at was sanctioned early last year due to complete mismanagement, so the owners brought in a whole new team & within two months we had made the necessary changes to have sanction removed & within five months we had the facility up to a “passed with flying colours” situation when we had the accreditation team back through. This is where we intend on keeping things. To allow us to be judged based on the failings of the previous managers is unfair!
Hi Caroline, I just joined your email list I was previously working in a Aged Care facility and I had the chance to see from the inside how they are run let me say that from what I have seen was not properly done was mainly that there was lack of genuine interest in the care f the elderly each elderly person was treated like a number, I have first hand seen humiliation, disrespect, lack of proper dignified care, metal abuse, miss treatment, and been dismissed by PCA staff, not all of them but Most of them, other staff members were very good and we’re doing there best at the same time showed respect towards the elderly in there care, this is what I witnessed many many times, even in hospitals same as I did my PSA and have worked in both Nursing Homes and Hospital so I have seen it happen. I am not saying that every single nursing home and hospital is like this Only a Few of them are like this many years ago.
Now my own mother’s is living in a nursing home due to her needing constant watching over due to her health issue, and still years later the same problem exists in now days nursing home centres, I am Very happy that the government has decided to have this type of rating hopefully it will remind them that professional conduct Has to be persuaded so there relief for family’s that there loved ones are getting the respect, dignified treatment they should be receiving, I hope that family’s can also have a say in this as we are the ones who see these actions first hand. I’m not just pointing out the PCA staff I know there lot of them who do give full attention with there job but for the others who Don’t give a damb should be re trained. As for the meals they are served there should be an investigation into what the elderly are been eating at meal times from what I have noticed at the one my mum is at its just processed food, and if you can’t eat certain types of food due to what ever reason a bowl of just Salad and 2 slices of bread is Not a dinner meal. Even tho you can complain to the facility it’s Not been heard or dealt with Just dismissed and ignored and blame passed on to others. So sad to see this happen in such wonderful well established country like ours. Sad really to deal with this.