Who will be interviewed?
The Consumer Experience Interviews program involves interviewing up to 20% of residents receiving care across every government-funded aged care service.
This amounts to approximately 37,000 interviews being held in 2,700 facilities across Australia.
When will the interviews take place?
Interviews will be held between April and October 2022.
- In the weeks leading up to a visit, a member of the program team will contact facilities to arrange a suitable date.
- All interviews for a facility must be conducted by October 2022 to be included as a component of the star rating for 2023 for that facility.
Which facilities are included?
All residential aged care facilities who receive Australian Government funding are included in the program.
How many residents will be interviewed in a facility?
The number of residents to be interviewed is dependent on the size of the aged care facility.
- At least 10% of residents in a facility will be interviewed, however this will be higher for smaller facilities to ensure statistical significance of the results.
- Residents will be randomly selected and will only be interviewed with their consent. Proxies will be used where required.
Will facilities have access to interview lists?
Randomised resident interview lists are compiled before visiting each site based on information provided by the Department of Health.
- It is essential that residents feel comfortable to answer truthfully, knowing their responses will remain anonymous. For that reason, facilities will not be provided with a list of residents to be interviewed.
- Interview lists are designed to ensure representative groups of residents are culturally diverse and include residents with special needs.
- Should a resident not have capacity to participate, the interview may be conducted with a representative.
What happens if a facility opts out of the program?
If a facility declines to participate in the program on initial contact or does not facilitate access to interview residents, the facility will be removed from the program list and no further contact made.
In such cases, non-participation will be published by the Department of Health and the facility’s overall star rating will be negatively impacted. Importantly, the overall star rating will be heavily weighted by consumer experience results relative to other data sources.
What information do facilities receive about interviews?
Aggregated, de-identified information from the interviews conducted at a given facility will be provided to each facility in a Consumer Experience Report. The reports include information as provided by residents, on the quality of care and services in residential aged care facilities. This information will provide rich insights for each facility into the care and services they are delivering from the perspective of senior Australians. The reports will also provide residential aged care facilities with opportunities to identify areas for improvement and further increase the quality of care they provide to senior Australians.
Who will conduct the interviews?
Consumer Experience Interviews will be undertaken by an independent third party workforce who will use a simple set of questions to ask senior Australians about their experience living in residential aged care. The questions were developed by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) with the help of La Trobe University’s Lincoln Centre for Research on Ageing.
The interviewers are employed and trained by ACNA, a not-for-profit specialist provider of assessment services. All interviewers:
- are highly trained and have prior experience working with senior Australians
- will be representative of the cultural diversity of the residents
- will have Police checks and required Working with Vulnerable People checks
- will be vaccinated against COVID-19 and influenza.
What about COVID-19 safety?
The Consumer Experience Interview team acknowledge the profound impact of COVID-19 on aged care residents and facilities and understand that safety is paramount. If required by the facility or by public health orders, full personal protective equipment will be worn by interviewers during site visits and resident interviews. If COVID-19 public health advice precludes resident interviews from being conducted in person, they will either be deferred until entry is permitted or conducted by telephone and/or videoconference, if appropriate.
Will there be an opportunity to provide feedback on the program?
- A small sample of aged care facility staff and residents will be invited to participate in an evaluation of the program conduct for quality improvement purposes.
- Human Research Ethics committee approval has been granted for this evaluation.
How will aged care homes receive their Consumer Experience Report (CER)?
- The outcomes from the consumer experience interview are being developed into a CER which will be distributed individually to each service via email. Additionally the associated CER will also be mailed out to services. In preparation for this the Department had requested all organisation administrators to ensure that the details for their respective service are current and up to date on the My Aged Care Provider portal by 17 November 2022.
Is there a review process if an aged care home disagrees with its Consumer Experience Report (CER)?
- Participating aged care homes will be given the opportunity to review the CER results before they are published on the My Aged Care Website. However, since the CER is based on resident feedback, facilities cannot disagree with the feedback and results. If an aged care home genuinely believes that there is a mistake with the CER, they can contact the department via email at: accer@health.gov.au The department will engage with IQVIA to investigate if there is a mistake in the data source or a mistake in the IT System which calculates the Star Rating.
Who should I contact if I have further questions, feedback or complaints about the Consumer Experience Interviews program?
- We are ready to receive your feedback by telephone or in writing. Please contact us to speak to one of our team members who will listen and take the details of your feedback or send us an email with the details of your question, feedback or complaint.
