Aged-care star rating

2022 - 12 - 19

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Image courtesy of "ABC News"

Calls for aged care rating system to be pulled down after complaints ... (ABC News)

A rating system that gives older Australians a way to compare aged care providers has been launched by the federal government, enacting a recommendation of the ...

The aged care royal commission found the aged care system was failing to meet the needs of older citizens, was unkind and uncaring and in too many instances neglectful. The Department of Health and Aged Care said it had tried to validate the data and was engaging with providers to make sure the ratings were accurate before they were published. On the My Aged Care government site, where the rating tool is found, providers with a 3-star rating are listed as "acceptable", with 4 stars being "good" and 2 stars labelled as "needs improvement". The star system ranks aged care providers from one to five, and while just 1 per cent received a 5-star rating, 91 per cent received a rating of 3 stars of more. A rating system that gives older Australians a way to compare aged care providers has been launched by the federal government, enacting a recommendation of the aged care royal commission. There are calls for a new aged care rating tool to be pulled down, with several providers and the opposition complaining of out-of-date information "distressing" older Australians ahead of Christmas.

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

'I'm very surprised': aged care star ratings questioned as 91% of ... (The Guardian)

Unions say 'bar must be set very low' as only 9% of facilities rated substandard despite recent reports of poor conditions.

Tom Symondson, the chief excecutive of the Aged and Community Care Providers Association industry group, praised the sector for achieving such high scores. [my aged care website,](https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/quality-aged-care) it rates facilities out of five, with three stars deemed “acceptable”, four stars “good” and five stars “excellent”. The system also shows individual star on the values of compliance, quality measures, residents’ experience and staffing. “That certainly hasn’t been the numbers we’ve previously seen. Smith said she was concerned there would be an “exodus” of staff from facilities given poor rankings, but she and Butler welcomed the star ratings as a tool to promote transparency and incentivise higher standards in aged care. “The bar must be set very low for 90% of aged care homes to be assessed as providing an acceptable standard of care,” she said.

Star ratings online, but validity questioned - Australian Ageing Agenda (Australian Ageing Agenda)

The star ratings for aged care homes has been published on the My Aged Care website this week for providers and the public to view.

“But we want to make sure the food being served to our older Australians in care is not only delicious but nutritious.” Under the resident experience rating, residents are asked “Do you like the food here?” The question, said Dietitians Australia CEO Robert Hunt, doesn’t adequately address nutrition. Speaking to The Guardian, United Workers Union aged care director Carolyn Smith pointed to the nine per cent of facilities falling into the bottom two classifications. “This is a big step forward for high-quality aged care in Australia,” added Ms Sparrow. They have achieved this despite extraordinary funding and workforce challenges,” Mr Symondson said in a statement on 9 December. This will be challenging, especially in rural areas where shortages are at their worst.” “All older people are entitled to five-star care.” [newsletter](https://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/subscribe/) and subscribe to [AAA magazine](https://shop.australianageingagenda.com.au/) for the complete aged care picture. “The scores for minutes of care are also reduced because they are taken from earlier in the year, at a time when the sector was neither funded for, nor required to meet, the 200 minutes of care requirement. “I don’t think any aged worker would say 91 per cent of providers are three stars and above.” The star ratings for residential aged care homes were released on Monday and published on the My Aged Care website for providers and the public to view. In a statement, Ms Wells said: “Star ratings is a significant milestone in the delivery of aged care reforms, achieved through collaboration with older Australians, aged care providers and sector experts.”

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Image courtesy of "The Sydney Morning Herald"

Two-thirds of aged care homes don't provide enough care for residents (The Sydney Morning Herald)

An analysis by this masthead of 2558 facilities the Commonwealth rated nationwide shows almost one in 10 ranked poorly for residents' experience, 17 per cent ...

In a press conference on Monday, Wells said the government wanted the three-star rating to be “the floor for people, not the ceiling ... Each nursing home’s performance on the four measures of staffing, quality measures, residents’ experience and compliance were used to determine its overall star rating. The data compiled by the government also showed that 17 per cent of providers received two stars or fewer for the quality of the care, which factored in the number of pressure injuries, the use of physical restraints and the quality of medical management.

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