Quality and safety of care and services are some 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?
This page covers what to look for to know your provider is delivering high-quality care, and what you can do if you have any concerns.
On this page
What does high-quality aged care look like?
There are many factors that go into delivering high-quality care to ensure the best possible quality of life. This includes:
- putting the older person first
- upholding the rights of the older person under the Statement of Rights
- meeting regulatory and health care requirements
- providing enough trained and skilled staff
- listening to people, respecting their rights, understanding them as individuals and delivering care in line with their needs and preferences
- hearing and responding to feedback from the people receiving care
- prioritising culturally appropriate services
- prioritising kindness, compassion and respect for the life experiences, self-determination, dignity, quality of life, mental health and wellbeing of the older person
- supporting the improvement of the older person’s wellbeing and independence
- supporting the older person to participate in meaningful activities
- supporting the older person to remain connected to friends, family, carers and the community.
How can I check an aged care provider’s performance on quality?
You can use the Find a provider tool to find providers that are registered with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. This means they need to meet aged care obligations, including applicable Aged Care Quality Standards and conditions on their registration.
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.
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.
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 sub-categories inform an Overall Star Rating.
The 4 key sub-categories are:
Residents' Experience
The Residents’ Experience rating considers how residents feel about the quality of care they receive in their aged care homes.
Compliance
The Compliance rating is based on how well a provider meets their aged care obligations in relation to the care and services it provides to older people.
Staffing
The Staffing rating looks at the amount of care being provided by nursing and personal care staff in an aged care home.
Quality Measures
The Quality Measures rating shows the quality and safety of care in aged care homes relating to 5 key areas.
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 4 sub-categories.
The table below displays the different rating levels and the percentage of homes nationwide that have received each rating.
|
Overall Star Rating |
What percentage of homes in Australia currently have this rating? * | |
 | Excellent | 5% |
 | Good | 76% |
 | Acceptable | 18% |
 | Improvement needed | 0% |
 | Significant improvement needed | 0% |
|
Overall Star Rating | ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
|
What percentage of homes in Australia currently have this rating? * | ||
| Excellent | ||
| Good | ||
| Acceptable | ||
| Improvement needed | ||
| Significant improvement needed | ||
| 5% | ||
| 76% | ||
| 18% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 76% | ||
| 18% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 76% | ||
| 18% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 76% | ||
| 18% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 0% | ||
* Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
For more information you can download the Star Ratings fact sheet.
What if I can’t see a rating?
There are many reasons why an aged care home may not display a rating for their Star Ratings. This may be because the home:
- is a new home
- 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, chose not to provide the data, or failed reasonableness checks of care minutes data. These homes have not been granted an exemption, or
- chose not to participate in the annual Residents’ Experience Survey. These homes have not been granted an exemption.
For new homes, homes with new owners, or recently reopened homes, it will take up to 12 months before there is enough data to calculate the Overall Star Rating. These homes will be exempt from Star Ratings until the data used to calculate each sub-category rating is available. The Overall Star Ratings will display once all 4 sub-categories ratings have been calculated.
There are some exceptions in the display of ratings and data in some of the areas:
- Compliance: If a provider receives a regulatory decision which applies to a home/s, the Compliance rating of one or more of their homes will be updated immediately. The Compliance ratings will be updated fortnightly in response to changes to graded assessment findings against the Aged Care Quality Standards.
- Residents' Experience: If a home cares for a small number of residents, the Resident Experience Survey data may reveal their identities. In this case, a Residents' Experience rating may be displayed, but not the survey data.
What if I'm not happy with the quality of care?
You have the right to receive quality care and services, and to always be treated with respect and dignity. This is part of the Statement of 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 about seeking support from an advocate, 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 or give feedback 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 provider and can make regulatory decisions where needed.