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Quality in aged care

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We know that the quality and safety of care and services is one of the most important factors when choosing an aged care provider. But what should you expect from your provider? And how can you be sure a provider will deliver the best quality of care for you? 

What does high quality aged care look like?

How can I check an aged care provider’s performance on quality?

Star Ratings in aged care homes 

What do the Star Ratings mean?

What if I can’t see a rating?

What if I’m not happy with the quality of care?

What does high quality aged care look like?

There are many factors that go into delivering high quality care. These include meeting regulatory and health care requirements and providing enough staff. High quality care is about listening to people, understanding them as individuals and delivering care in line with their needs and preferences. It’s about hearing and responding to feedback from the people receiving care, to ensure the best possible quality of life.

How can I check an aged care provider’s performance on quality?

You can use the Find a provider tool to find service providers in your area that are regulated by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. This means they need to meet the Aged Care Quality Standards and other legal requirements.

If you’re looking at a Home Care Package or an aged care home, you’ll find some extra information to help you understand how they are performing. 

  • For Home Care Package providers: You can check whether they are meeting compliance requirements in the Compliance section of their profile. 
  • For aged care homes: You can quickly understand and compare the quality of care provided at aged care homes using the Australian Government’s Star Ratings. Star Ratings provide a rating for homes against set criteria to make them easy to compare.
a purple-blue star with the words aged care Star Ratings underneath

Look for the new aged care Star Ratings

Aged care homes receive a Star Rating for Residents’ Experience, Compliance, Staffing and Quality Measures. The ratings for each subcategory make up the home's Overall Star Rating.

Star Ratings in aged care homes

The Australian Government assesses the quality of care at all government-funded aged care homes. Based on these assessments, each home receives a Star Rating as a simple way of showing information about the quality of care they provide and how they compare to others.

Star Ratings were introduced in December 2022. Aged care homes receive a rating between 1 and 5 stars to indicate the quality of care across 4 key areas of performance. Outcomes in these 4 subcategories inform an overall Star Rating.

The 4 key areas are:

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Residents' Experience
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Residents' Experience

The Residents’ Experience rating considers how residents feel about the quality of care they receive in their aged care homes. It’s based on surveys from residents gathered by an independent team. It looks at their experiences of:

  • safety 
  • treatment from staff 
  • food standards, and
  • feelings of independence and belonging.

The Residents’ Experience Rating contributes 33% to the Overall Star Rating.

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Compliance
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Compliance

The Compliance rating is based on how well a home meets government standards and rules.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) check that aged care service providers and aged care homes are providing safe, effective, and high-quality care to older people. The Commission makes formal regulatory decisions based on how well a home meets standards. This means that the provider needs to make improvement to how they deliver care to older people.

Compliance ratings are updated every day in response to specific formal regulatory decisions. Compliance ratings are also updated every week in response to changes in accreditation decisions.

The Compliance rating contributes 30% to the Overall Star Rating.

  • If an aged care home receives a Compliance rating of 1 star, the Overall Star Rating will be capped at 1 star.
  • If an aged care home receives a Compliance rating of 2 stars, the Overall Star Rating will be capped at 2 stars.
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Staffing
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Staffing

The Staffing rating looks at the amount of care being provided by nursing and personal care staff in an aged care home. It tells you whether aged care homes are meeting their care requirements in relation to:

  • the total minutes of nursing and personal care being provided to residents each day, and
  • the care from a registered nurse to residents each day.

The Staffing Rating contributes 22% to the Overall Star Rating.

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Quality Measures
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Quality Measures

The Quality Measures rating describes the quality and safety of care in aged care homes in relation to five key areas of care. These areas are important indicators of whether a home is providing high quality care to its residents. Quality Measures looks at incidents at the home and compares these results to the national average.

The 5 Quality Measures are: 

  • pressure injuries
  • restrictive practices
  • unplanned weight loss
  • falls and major injury, and
  • medication management.

The Quality Measures rating contributes 15% to the Overall Star Rating.

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What do the Star Ratings mean?

When you use the Find a provider tool to check an aged care home’s Star Rating, you’ll see an Overall Star Rating between 1 and 5 stars. More stars means an aged care home is delivering higher quality care across the four key areas of performance. 

The table below displays the different rating levels and the number of homes nationwide that have received each rating.

Overall Star RatingWhat percentage of homes in Australia currently have this rating? *
five starsExcellent3%
four starsGood70%
three starsAcceptable26%
two starsImprovement needed0%
one starSignificant improvement needed0%

* Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.

For more information you can download Star Ratings fact sheet. We have also translated this fact sheet into 18 languages, which you can find by selecting your preferred language on our Accessible for all page.

What if I can’t see a rating?

There are a number of reasons why a provider may display a ’No rating’ label. This may be because the aged care home:

  • is a new provider
  • is operating under new ownership
  • has recently reopened after major repairs or renovations
  • is experiencing technical (data or IT) issues
  • has received a temporary exemption due to significant health or weather-related circumstances
  • reported their data late or chose not to provide the data needed. These providers have not been granted an exemption, or
  • chose not to participate in the annual Residents’ Experience Survey. These providers have not been granted an exemption.

For new providers, new ownership, or recent reopening, data and ratings will appear in the subcategory areas from about 6 months. The Overall Star Rating is displayed at 12 months once data across all four subcategories has been collected.

There are some exceptions in the display of ratings and data in some of the subcategories:

  • Compliance: If a provider receives a specific formal regulatory notice before their 12-month assessment, their Compliance Rating will be updated immediately.
  • Residents' Experience: If a provider cares for a small number of residents, the Resident Experience Survey data may reveal their identities. In this case, a Residents' Experience rating will be displayed, but not the survey data.
     

What if I'm not happy with the quality of care?

You have the right to receive high quality care and services, and to always be treated with respect and dignity. This is part of the Charter of Aged Care Rights.

If you have concerns about the quality of care that you or your loved one is receiving, a good first step is to talk to your provider about it. If you need help with talking to your provider an advocate may be able to help you. Learn more on our Advocacy page or visit the Older Persons Advocacy Network website. 

If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your provider, or you have spoken to them and your concern has not been resolved, you can make a complaint to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. If you wish, your complaint can be confidential or anonymous. They can help you resolve your concern with the service provider and can take regulatory action where needed.

In this section
What to consider
Aged Care Quality Standards
How are Star Ratings calculated?
Compliance
Quality Measures in aged care
Nursing and personal care in aged care homes
What do the residents think?
Your right to quality care
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Further information

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