Senator Richard Colbeck (pictured above) has approved the addition of falls and major injury and medication management to be added to the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program for residential care from 1 July 2021 – but more are likely to be made mandatory if the Royal Commission follows through on the Counsel Assistings' recommendations.
From 1 July 2021, residential providers will be required to measure and report on:
- Pressure injuries
- Physical restraint
- Unplanned weight loss
- Falls and major injury (including the percentage of care recipients who experienced one or more falls and those who experienced one or more falls resulting in major injury)
- Medication management (including the percentage of care recipients who prescribed nine or more medications and the number who received antipsychotic medications)
But the Royal Commission has indicated that these will be expanded further.
In its final hearing, the Counsel Assisting outlined two recommendations aimed at the system including expanding the indicators for residential care – and developing quality indicators for home care – by July 2023, two-and-a-half years away.
This would include implementing a comprehensive quality of life assessment tool for people receiving aged care in residential care and at home.
The Counsel Assisting also recommended that by 1 July 2022 – 18 months away – the Government should implement reporting and benchmarking of provider performance against quality indicators.
Commissioner Lynelle Briggs AO has also shown support for this idea.
“If the data was publicly available that would introduce a level of competitive tension to ratchet up quality outcomes across the sector?” she asked during evidence to the Royal Commission.
The recommendations follow the release of the Royal Commission’s eighth research paper in August conducted by the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) and the 50(SAHMRI) which concluded there were nine indicators that could easily be measured without adding to providers’ reporting burden.
Watch this space then.
