This is a brief summary of the Star Rating System recently introduced into the residential aged care sector in response to Recommendation 24 of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
In December 2022 the Star Rating system was introduced to the residential aged care sector. This rating system provides ratings between 1-5 Stars on 4 categories which include:
- Compliance – this is updated daily as it is based on non-compliance decisions made by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission following assessments and Accreditation
- Residents' Experience – at least 10% of residents in an aged care home are interviewed by an external party using the Consumer Experience Survey which is conducted face-to-face.
- Staffing – this measures the delivery of care minutes delivered per day including all “clinical staff” – registered nurses, enrolled nurses or assistants in nursing and personal care workers. Average care minutes per day are dependent on assessments of residents care needs that are undertaken using the new Australian Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model (these assessments are undertaken independent of the aged care home staff). The staffing rating is determined on whether homes meet or exceed the minimum requirement.
From 1 October 2022 the target of 200 minutes per day (including 40 minutes of registered nurse time) was introduced as a minimum. This will become mandatory from 1 October 2023 and will increase to 215 minutes (44 minutes registered nurse time) from 1 October 2024. - Quality Measures– these are reported on quarterly and inform the Quality Measure star rating
- Pressure injuries
- Physical restraint
- Unplanned weight loss
- Falls and major injury
- Medication management
- OVERALL STAR RATING – from this data an overall STAR RATING is derived.
You can see an Aged Care Home rating by going to: Find a provider (myagedcare.gov.au)
You can read more about the STAR RATING SYSTEM by going to: Calculating the Star Ratings | My Aged Care
The Star System has bought increased transparency to residential aged care however it is early days in implementation and we are yet to see how effective the system will be in driving and leading quality improvement and whether the Star System will provide increased confidence by consumers looking for and living in a residential care home.
Next week we will focus on the Resident Experience measure. I would suggest we should be interested in how we are measuring the consumer experience for those residents who:
- Cannot verbally respond to questions or select a “emoji” to express how they feel
- Have no family or significant other or advocate to represent them
- Have no decision-making capacity and do not have a close family member or other who is able to fully respond on their behalf?
You can read more about the Aged Care Reforms at:
Aged care reforms | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
You can subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on the reforms and may be asked to participate in some reviews:
Subscribe to our EngAged newsletter | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
Author:
Jenny Cotterell, Aged Care Project Officer, Palliative Care Victoria