Advisory firm Pride Living has released its first report on non-compliance in home care, based on data contained in the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's Sector Performance Report for the June 2023 quarter.
The most commonly unmet standard in 2022-23 was Standard 8 - Organisation Governance, followed by Standard 2 - Ongoing Assessment and Planning with Consumers, and, third, Standard 7 - Human Resources.
Aged care management specialists Pride noted that "Governance themes related to systems and processes dominate the majority of identified non-compliances, underscoring the critical importance of effective systems and overall governance.
"Standard 8 is not always assessed in isolation," Pride notes.
"Non-compliances identified in Standard 8 are likely associated with non-compliances found in other Standards, particularly Standards 2 and 3 which exhibit the highest instances of non-compliance."
This is borne out in data on the most commonly unmet individual requirements. The top most unmet requirements were, in order of most common to least common were:
- 8(3)(c) – Effective governance systems
- 2(3)(a) – Assessment and planning informs safe and effective services
- 8(3)(d) – Risk management systems and practices
- 2(3)(e) – Regular reviews of care and services
- 2(3)(b) – Assessment and planning identifies current needs
- 2(3)(d) – Communication of assessment and planning outcomes
"In our opinion, the most significant barrier to home care is the maturity of the systems by providers," Pride notes. "In the past, this has been an area lacking focus among home care providers, and only recently, with the introduction of SIRS, has there been increased attention."
(The June 2023 report contained data on the home care SIRS for the first time.)
From the findings, Pride recommends home care providers focus their attention on strengthening their governance systems and consider increasing their scale.
Boards also require a careful mix of skills, especially for medium and small operators, Pride suggests.
With the introduction of SIRS in home care, "emphasise digital transformation... and start collecting quality indicators as part of the clinical governance framework", Pride recommends.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's Sector Performance Report for the June 2023 quarter was released last year and can be viewed here.
