Much needed upgrades made to aged care accreditation system
Aged care facilities will be surveyed for accreditation using a new online system starting this month, in an effort to prevent sub-standard facilities from falling through the cracks.
Aged care facilities will be able to compare their accreditation performance against regional and national benchmarks under the new accreditation system (Source: Shutterstock)
Surveyors from the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency will be conducting accreditation performance reviews using a new Computer Assisted Audit Tool (CAAT), due to come online this month.
The CAAT will contain the descriptors for meeting the 44 aged care industry standards and for the first time, will allow providers and agencies to see the extent to which the facility meets those standards.
Aged care facilities will also be able to compare their accreditation performance against regional and national benchmarks under the new accreditation system.
Australian Aged Care Quality Agency Chief Executive Officer Nick Ryan says the agency has been working on the development of the tool, including the development of the software and the audit methodology, for around 12 months.
“Surveyors will use the tool to support audit practices of evidence collection from interviews, observations and document reviews,” Mr Ryan says.
“The information gathered in CAAT will produce a report of major findings or an assessment contact report of the outcomes of our audit visits.
“The information will be used at a regulatory case management level to better inform risk-based approaches in relation to assessing a home’s performance against the standards.”
The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency also introduced a Consumer Experience Report this week, which will allow 10 percent of care recipients at any one facility to provide feedback at the time of the audit about the quality of the care and services.
The agency interviews up to 600,000 aged care residents a year but has not previously had a standardized approach to recording the feedback received.
The new format will comprise of 10 questions, developed by the La Trobe University’s Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing, such as ‘do the staff treat you with respect?’ and ‘Do staff meet your health care needs?