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: From December 2022, you can quickly understand and compare the quality of care provided at aged care homes using the Australian Government’s Star Ratings. The Star Ratings provide a rating for homes against set criteria to make them easy to compare.
Look for the new aged care Star Ratings
Aged care homes receive a Star Rating for Compliance, Quality Measures, Residents' Experience, and Staffing. 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:
Compliance
The Compliance Rating looks at whether an aged care home is meeting government regulations and standards. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission checks aspects of care including quality, safety, financial matters, and management.
An aged care home with a 1-star rating means that a decision such as a sanction has been made in response to a high level of risk to people receiving aged care. A 5-star rating reflects a 3-year period with no non-compliance decisions and an accreditation period of at least 3 years.
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.
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 five Quality Measures are:
- pressure injuries
- physical restraint
- unplanned weight loss
- falls and major injury, and
- medication management.
The Quality Measures Rating contributes 15% to the overall Star Rating.
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.
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 each resident each day, and
- the care from a registered nurse to each resident each day.
The Staffing Rating contributes 22% to the overall Star Rating.
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 Rating | |
|---|---|
 | Excellent |
 | Good |
 | Acceptable |
 | Improvement needed |
 | Significant improvement needed |
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, or
- has received a temporary exemption due to significant health- or weather-related circumstances.
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 non-compliance decision 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.
You may also see a provider with a 1-star rating, but without data. This may happen in the Residents' Experience, Quality Measures, or Staffing subcategories. It means the provider reported their data late or chose not to provide the data needed. These providers have not been granted an exemption.
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.