Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T18:49:48.763Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Regulating long-term care quality in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2014

Len C. Gray
Affiliation:
The University of Queensland
David J. Cullen
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Harold B. Lomas
Affiliation:
Australian Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
Vincent Mor
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
Tiziana Leone
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Anna Maresso
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Get access

Summary

Introduction

This chapter describes the arrangements in Australia for regulating the quality of long-term care services delivered in the community or in a residential setting. Its focus is on the long-term care of ‘older people’ – ‘aged care’ in Australian parlance. The chapter begins with an overview of Australia’s aged care system and its quality framework, including its place within the broader health and welfare system. It then discusses the arrangements for regulating the quality of residential care, which have been a major focus in recent decades, and the arrangements for regulating the quality of community care, which have a shorter history and are less developed. The chapter then discusses current reforms, which are aimed at better integrating these arrangements within and across programmes, and concludes with some reflections on the key challenges currently facing Australian public policy in this area.

Overview of Australia’s aged care system and its quality framework

Australia’s aged care system is funded and regulated through a complex set of arrangements, involving different levels of government and a diverse range of stakeholders, including informal carers and formal care providers from the not-for-profit (religious and charitable), for-profit and government sectors. These arrangements reflect, in part, the broader Australian health and welfare system, involving a similarly complex range of providers, with responsibilities for funding, regulation and service delivery shared between the three levels of government: federal, state and territory (‘state’), and local (AIHW, 2010, 2011a).

Type
Chapter
Information
Regulating Long-Term Care Quality
An International Comparison
, pp. 149 - 179
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency Ltd (ACSAA) (2011). Annual Report 2010–11. Canberra: ACSAA.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2007). Lifetime marriage and divorce trends. Australian Social Trends 2007 (cat. no. 4102.0). Canberra: ABS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008a). Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008 (cat. no. 3105.0.65.001). Canberra: ABS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008b). Population Projections, Australia, 2006–2101 (cat. no. 3222.0). Canberra: ABS.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2010). The Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (cat. no. 4704.0). Canberra: ABS.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2007). Evaluation of the Impact of Accreditation on the Delivery of Quality of Care and Quality of Life to Residents in Australian Government-Subsidised Residential Aged Care Homes. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2010a). Building a 21st Century Primary Healthcare System. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2010b). Community Care Common Standards Guide. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2010c). Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act 1997, 1 July 2009–30 June 2010. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2010d). Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry Caring for Older Australians. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2010e). The 2008 Community Care Census. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2011a). Second Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry Caring for Older Australians. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2011b). Technical Paper on the Changing Dynamics of Residential Care (prepared to assist the Productivity Commission Inquiry Caring for Older Australians). Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Department of Health and Ageing (ADoHA) (2011c). The Review of the Aged Care Funding Instrument Report. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Australian Government (2010). Australia to 2050, Future Challenges. Intergenerational Report 2010. Canberra: Australian Government.Google Scholar
Australian Government (2011). Media release by the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Julia Gillard MP, 8 August 2011. At:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2010). Australia’s Health 2010. Canberra: AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2011a). Australia’s Welfare 2011. Canberra: AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2011b). Health Expenditure Australia 2009–10. Canberra: AIHW.Google Scholar
Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) (1995). The Coming of Age: New Aged Care Legislation for the Commonwealth: Review of Legislation Administered by Department of Human Services and Health. Sydney: ALRC.Google Scholar
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) (2000). Home and Community Care. Canberra: ANAO.Google Scholar
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) (2003). Managing Residential Aged Care Accreditation. Audit Report no. 42. Canberra: ANAO.Google Scholar
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) (2011). Report on Monitoring and Compliance Arrangements of Care in Residential Care Homes. Audit Report no.48. Canberra: ANAO.Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (1982). In a Home or at Home: Accommodation and Home Care for the Aged. Report of the inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Expenditure. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS).Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (1985a). In a Home or at Home: Accommodation and Home Care for the Aged: Follow-up Report. Report of the inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Expenditure. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (1985b). Private Nursing Homes in Australia: Their Conduct, Administration and Ownership. Report of the inquiry by the Senate Select Committee on Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (1994) Home but Not Alone: Report on the Home and Community Care Program. Report of an inquiry by the House of Representative Standing Committee on Community Affairs. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (2005). Quality and Equity in Aged Care: Report of the Inquiry by the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee. Canberra: Australian Parliament.Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (2006). The Blame Game: Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing Inquiry into Health Funding. Canberra: Australian Parliament.Google Scholar
Australian Parliament (2009). Residential and Community Aged Care in Australia: Report of the Inquiry by the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee. Canberra: Australian Parliament.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, J., Makkai, T., Braithwaite, V. and Gibson, D. (1993). Raising the Standard: Resident Centred Nursing Home Regulation in Australia. Aged and Community Care Service Development and Evaluation Reports no. 10. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD), University of Wollongong (2010). Selecting Tools for ACAT Assessment: A Report for the Expert Clinical Reference Group. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Codde, J., Frankel, J., Arendts, G. and Babich, P. (2010). Quantification of the proportion of transfers from residential care facilities to the Emergency Department that could be avoided through improved primary care services. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 29(4): 167–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cullen, D. (2003a). Historical Perspectives: the Evolution of the Australian Government’s Involvement in Supporting the Needs of Older People. Review of Pricing Arrangements in Residential Care Background Paper no. 4. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Cullen, D. (2003b). The Commonwealth Legislative Framework. Review of Pricing Arrangements in Residential Care Background Paper no. 2, Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Gray, L. C. (2001). Two Year Review of Aged Care Reforms. Canberra: ADoHA.Google Scholar
Gray, L. C., Travers, C. M., Bartlett, H. P., Crotty, M. and Cameron, I. D. (2008). Transition care: will it deliver?Medical Journal of Australia, 188(4): 251–3.Google ScholarPubMed
Gregory, R. (1993). Review of the Structure of Nursing Home Arrangements: Stage 1. Aged and Community Care Service Development and Evaluation Reports no. 11. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Gregory, R. (1994). Review of the Structure of Nursing Home Arrangements: Stage 2. Aged and Community Care Service Development and Evaluation Reports no. 12. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar
Linacre, S. (2006). Caring for an Older Australia – a Presentation to the Economic and Social Outlook Conference: Making the Boom Pay. Melbourne Institute.Google Scholar
National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (2009). A Healthier Future for All Australians. Canberra: National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission.Google Scholar
Productivity Commission (2008). Trends in Aged Care Services: Some Implications. Canberra: Productivity Commission.Google Scholar
Productivity Commission (2011). Report of the Inquiry into Caring for Older Australians. Canberra: Productivity Commission.Google Scholar
Ronalds, C. (1989). Residents’ Rights in Nursing Homes and Hostels: Final Report. Canberra: AGPS.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×