The recent Star Ratings for residential aged care suggest that 90% of aged care providers are delivering acceptable quality care – 3 stars or better. An article published on Croakey Health Media written by health policy expert Charles Maskell-Knight argues that the rating system deserves only 1 star as it “needs significant improvement”.
The Productivity Commission has now released a report on aged care and the data suggests significantly fewer than 90% of homes audited are meeting the quality standards. 710 homes were audited and measured against the 8 quality standards, with only 88.5% meeting standard 5, Organisation’s service environment, and only 61.5% meeting Standard 3 Personal care and clinical care.
Almost 40% of audited homes were not delivering safe and effective personal and clinical care, and almost 30% of audited homes did not have an adequate workforce to deliver safe, respectful and quality care.
The results suggest poor quality remains widespread across the sector, despite the star ratings system.
