How are Star Ratings calculated?

Overall Star Rating

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. More stars means an aged care home is delivering higher quality care across the 4 key areas of performance.

The Overall rating is based on a provider’s performance across the 4 key areas of Residents’ Experience, Compliance, Staffing and Quality Measures. The table below shows the weighting of each subcategory towards the Overall Star Ratings and how that calculation was made.

• 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.

Residents' Experience rating

As a prospective aged care resident, you may have questions about what life is like in a particular aged care home. You may want to know how existing residents feel about the level and quality of care, the living environment, and how providers support their residents’ quality of life.

The Residents’ Experience rating is based on an aged care home’s results in the annual Residents’ Experience Survey (formerly known as Consumer Experience Interview), An aged care home’s Residents’ Experience rating is updated annually, following completion of the home’s Residents’ Experience Survey for that year.

The Residents’ Experience Survey includes 12 questions that inform the Residents’ Experience rating. The survey asks for responses to each of the 12 questions on a scale ranging from 'Always' to 'Never'.

Points are allocated for each question based on the response that each resident provides. The table below displays the points that each response receives.

The points are multiplied by the percentage of residents who gave that particular response. These are calculated for each question. The total points for all 12 questions will determine a home’s Residents’ Experience rating. 

 The table below displays the different rating levels and what they mean. 

Residents' Experience rating		What this means
	Excellent	The aged care home received between 45 and 48 points on the Residents' Experience Survey.
	Good	The aged care home received between 41 and less than 45 points on the Residents' Experience Survey.
	Acceptable	The aged care home received between 36 and less than 41 points on the Residents' Experience Survey.
	Improvement needed	The aged care home received between 30 and less than 36 points on the Residents' Experience Survey.
	Significant improvement needed	The aged care home received between 12 and less than 30 points on the Residents' Experience Survey.

Compliance rating

The Compliance rating is based on providers’ performance in relation to government regulations and standards about the safety and quality of care they offer.

The rating is updated whenever compliance actions are issued or resolved. 

The table below displays the different rating levels and what they mean.

Compliance rating		What this means
	Excellent	The Commission visited the aged care home and gave an accreditation period of 3 or more years. The service has had no specific formal regulatory notices in place for the last 3 years.
	Good	The aged care home has had no specific formal regulatory notices in place for 1 year.
	Acceptable	The aged care home has no specific formal regulatory notices in place or is working with the Commission to fix compliance issues.
	Improvement needed	The aged care home has current specific formal regulatory notices in place, and the Commission requires the home to take action to fix them.
	Significant improvement needed	The aged care home has current specific formal regulatory notices in place, and the Commission has put conditions on the home until the issues are fixed.

Staffing rating

The Staffing rating is based on an aged care home's reporting on the following care minute targets: 

1. the total amount of nursing and personal care time from a registered nurse, enrolled nurse and personal care worker, and 
2. the care time from a Registered Nurse only.

Providers need to report the amount of care delivered in relation to these 2 measures quarterly. Meeting or exceeding these targets means a provider will have a better Star Rating for Staffing.

Registered Nurse care time contributed by an Enrolled Nurse will be calculated from the next Star Ratings quarterly update.
 
The tables below display the different rating levels and what they mean.

Staffing Rating
	Excellent
	Good
	Acceptable
	Improvement needed
	Significant improvement needed

	Overall Care Minutes Target
	Less than  90% of target met	Between 90% and less than 100% of target met	Between 100 and less than 105% of target met	Between 105% and less than 115% of target met	Equal to or more than 115% of target met
Registered  Nurse Care Minutes Target
Less than 75% of target met
Between 75% and less than 100% of target met
Between 100% and less than 115% of target met
Between 115% and less than 125% of target met
Equal to or more than 125% of target met

Quality Measures rating

The Quality Measures rating looks at 5 health issues that are important indicators of whether a home is providing high quality care to its residents. It looks at incidents at the home over a previous quarter and compares these results to the national average. This rating is updated quarterly.

The 5 Quality Measures that contribute to this Star Rating are:

1. Pressure injuries

The 5 stages of pressure injuries that contribute to the Quality Measures rating are:

• stage 2 pressure injury
• stage 3 pressure injury
• stage 4 pressure injury
• unstageable pressure injury
• suspected deep tissue injury.

Stage 1 pressures injuries do not contribute to the Quality Measures rating. Each pressure injury stage is weighted, with more serious injuries (i.e. stage 4 pressure injury, unstageable pressure injury and suspected deep tissue pressure injury) making a larger contribution to the rating.

2. Restrictive practices

There are 5 types of restrictive practice:

• Environmental restraint: restrictions on a person's access to all parts of their environment (including items and activities)
• Mechanical restraint: devices that stop, restrict, or reduce a person's movement
• Physical restraint: the use of physical force to stop, restrict, or reduce a person's movement
• Seclusion: stopping a person from leaving a physical space in which they are confined
• Chemical restraint: the use of medication or a chemical substance to influence a person’s behaviour.

The restrictive practice quality indicator measures data relating to all restrictive practices, excluding chemical restraint. Read more about the types of restrictive practice. 

 3. Unplanned weight loss

There is 1 category of unplanned weight loss contributing to the Quality Measures rating - significant unplanned weight loss of 5% or more in the quarter.

 4. Falls and major injury

The 2 categories of falls that contribute to the Quality Measures rating are:

• falls
• falls resulting in major injury.

Falls resulting in major injury are weighted more heavily, making a larger contribution to the rating.

5. Medication management

The 2 categories of medication management that contribute to the Quality Measure rating are:

• Medication management – polypharmacy
• Medication management – antipsychotics.

Aged care homes are given a rating between 1 and 5 stars based on their performance in each of the 5 Quality Measures. They receive points in each area based on how they compare to other homes, with the best performing getting fewer points. Their total score is used to rank their overall performance and split them into 5 equal groups. Those with the fewest points overall receive 5 stars and those with most points get 1 star.

• 5 stars for the Quality Measures rating indicates very low percentage of care recipients with the quality indicator outcomes (5 to less than 10 points).
• 4 stars for the Quality Measures rating indicates low percentage of care recipients with the quality indicator outcomes (10 to less than 12 points).
• 3 stars for the Quality Measures rating indicates average percentage of care recipients with the quality indicator outcomes (12 to less than 16 points).
• 2 stars for the Quality Measures rating indicates high percentage of care recipients with the quality indicator outcomes (16 to less than 18 points).
• 1 star for the Quality Measures rating indicates very high percentage of care recipients with the quality indicator outcomes (more than 18 points).

Scores have been adjusted to account for differing levels of resident needs and to allow fair comparison between aged care homes.

The table below shows the different rating levels.

Quality Measures rating
	Excellent
	Good
	Acceptable
	Needs improvement
	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
• 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.
• 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 4 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 Residents’ Experience Survey data may reveal their identities. In this case, a Residents' Experience rating will be displayed, but not the survey data.