Home care complaints up, but so is compliance

Complaints made against home care providers rose by almost a hundred during October-December 2022 – 948 compared to 849 the previous quarter. Of these, 829 were about home care packages, according to the quality commission’s latest performance report.

Among the top 10 complaints featured in the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s Sector performance report:

Care recipients made up the largest complainant group (454), followed by a representative or family member (415), others (51) and anonymous (28).

During the quarter, the commission finalised a total of 1,041 complaints about home services across both the early resolution pathway and the formal resolution pathway.

Before a complaint is finalised, the commission talks to all parties to explain its findings and how the issues have been resolved.

During the final quarter of 2022, the report shows there were over one million consumers of home services, comprising 249,429 recipients of home care packages and 818,228 recipients of Commonwealth Home Support Program services.

There were 58 quality audits conducted during the period with 45 services found to be non-compliant with one or more quality standard – down from 64 the previous period.

Number of services where non-compliance was found with each quality standard:

Meanwhile, 13 applications to become a home care service provider were approved – 38 applications were rejected.

Reasons for non-approval relate to failure to satisfy one or more of the suitability criteria. The key issues for applicants were:

• lack of experience
• failure to demonstrate an understanding of responsibilities
• policies and procedures not tailored to the proposed service
• business models that were insufficient to enable effective delivery of care in the home
• not adequately explaining the funding available to enable them to commence delivery of the service or maintain financial viability.

Quality standards

When it came to the Aged Care Quality Standards, 45 home care providers were found to be non-compliant with at least one standard – down from 64 the previous quarter.

The graph below shows the regulatory actions the commission has enforced over the past two quarters. In all, it issued 11 non-compliance notices during the latest reporting period.

The requirements most frequently cited in a non-compliance notice were related to governance, assessment and planning, and effective management of high impact or high prevalence clinical risks.

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