The latest and expanded Residential Aged Care Quality Indicators report from the Federal Government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) found that 41% of residents were prescribed nine or more medications – the trigger for the polypharmacy indicator – and 21.6% received an antipsychotic during the seven-day assessment period in the quarter.
For the first time ever, five Quality Indicators were used in the reporting: medication management and, falls and major injury, added to pressure injuries, use of physical restraint and unplanned weight loss.
The July-September 2021 Quality Indicator report had found that 25% of residents were physically restrained, almost one in 10 experienced unplanned weight loss, one in 20 had a pressure injury and 31.9% had a fall, with 2.1% experiencing a fall that caused a major injury.
The AIHW’s original Quality Indicator program counted occurrences of pressure injuries, unplanned weight loss and physical restraint devices (meaning that more than one pressure injury or physical restraint device could be counted for a single care recipient).
The expanded Quality Indicator program from 1 July 2022 now counts the number of care recipients meeting/not meeting Quality Indicator criteria and produces prevalence rates in the form of percentages.
