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Sydney providers get third-party perspective with new Aged Care Rating System

on Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Aged care providers from across New South Wales convened in Sydney last Wednesday to discuss the introduction of an independent rating system to assist consumers weighing up their residential aged care alternatives.

Launched in Melbourne on April 16, The Aged Care Rating System (ACRS) is a benchmark tool for providers that offers consumers an unbiased assessment of their options.

Millennium Aged Care Placement Consultants and Ansell Strategic have partnered with Aged Care Online to front the initiative.

The new system measures the quality of the aged care facilities in terms of physical form, resident services, resident input and staff culture.

Ansell Strategic director Cam Ansell said care was purposefully left out of the criteria to avoid the challenge of the UK peak body, who led a similar model a few years ago.

“There’s a huge amount of subjectivity that goes on when you try to appraise the value of care,” Mr Ansell told audiences.

“So this system is primarily around physical form and non-care services.”

In Melbourne, the ACRS was piloted with the BlueCross group, who have now had all of their residential facilities rated.

In Sydney, SummitCare is the first aged care provider to trial the rating system and ACRS accreditors are currently in the process of reviewing all nine of their residential communities.

SummitCare CEO Cynthia Payne said she welcomed the opportunity to place another mirror on her business.

“We are on a journey of business excellence that goes beyond accreditation,” she told audiences on Wednesday.

“That means having other people come in with an independent evaluation.”

Ms Payne said consumers are likely to rely on independent advice to help guide their decision making, with or without a rating system.

“I want to be part of something where I can help craft the conversation rather than being on the end of something that is quite unintelligent, unhelpful and creates fear in the mind of the consumer.”

Hear what some of the other attendees had to say:

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