AIM: Australian residential aged care does not have a system of quality assessment related to clinical outcomes, or comprehensive quality benchmarking. The Residential Care Quality Assessment was developed to fill this gap; and this paper discusses the process by which preliminary benchmarks representing high and low quality were developed for it. METHODS: Data were collected from all residents (n = 498) of nine facilities. Numerator-denominator analysis of clinical outcomes occurred at a facility-level, with rank-ordered results circulated to an expert panel. The panel identified threshold scores to indicate excellent and questionable care quality, and refined these through Delphi process. RESULTS: Clinical outcomes varied both within and between facilities; agreed thresholds for excellent and poor outcomes were finalised after three Delphi rounds. CONCLUSION: Use of the Residential Care Quality Assessment provides a concrete means of monitoring care quality and allows benchmarking across facilities; its regular use could contribute to improved care outcomes within residential aged care in Australia.
AIM: Australian residential aged care does not have a system of quality assessment related to clinical outcomes, or comprehensive quality benchmarking. The Residential Care Quality Assessment was developed to fill this gap; and this paper discusses the process by which preliminary benchmarks representing high and low quality were developed for it. METHODS: Data were collected from all residents (n = 498) of nine facilities. Numerator-denominator analysis of clinical outcomes occurred at a facility-level, with rank-ordered results circulated to an expert panel. The panel identified threshold scores to indicate excellent and questionable care quality, and refined these through Delphi process. RESULTS: Clinical outcomes varied both within and between facilities; agreed thresholds for excellent and poor outcomes were finalised after three Delphi rounds. CONCLUSION: Use of the Residential Care Quality Assessment provides a concrete means of monitoring care quality and allows benchmarking across facilities; its regular use could contribute to improved care outcomes within residential aged care in Australia.
Authors: Peter D Hibbert; Louise K Wiles; Ian D Cameron; Alison Kitson; Richard L Reed; Andrew Georgiou; Len Gray; Johanna Westbrook; Hanna Augustsson; Charlotte J Molloy; Gaston Arnolda; Hsuen P Ting; Rebecca Mitchell; Frances Rapport; Susan J Gordon; William B Runciman; Jeffrey Braithwaite Journal: BMJ Open Date: 2019-06-25 Impact factor: 2.692