Aged care residents and their families will be able to see exactly how their home spends their money on food, care and services through a new online tool the Albanese Government says will hold providers to account for how they spend taxpayer money. Source: The Guardian.
The Government is also using increased levels of data about aged care homes to monitor whether providers are passing on the full wage rise granted to staff by the Government.
The “Dollars to Care” tool, which launched last night on the My Aged Care website, allows users to compare individual homes across Australia on key care metrics and see how they fare against sector averages.
The data, which was collected by the Government and has been available to the sector for some time, is being made public for the first time – with users able to see statistics including the amount of money spent on food each day, resident satisfaction and feedback from staff, whether food is prepared fresh or off-site, the average pay for nurses and care workers, the income of the facility and whether it made recent profits.
It will also show the results of resident experience surveys including what kind of meals residents can expect each day, highlight issues that staff surveys raise as of “most concern” and “most complimented”, and outline areas the facility is focused on improving.
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said that while most facilities were doing the right thing, “we have to shine a light on those who aren’t and take action”.
Better transparency tools were a key recommendation of the royal commission into aged care.
FULL STORY
New online tool reveals how much Australian aged care homes spend on food, care and services (By Josh Butler, The Guardian)
