COTA Australia presented to the ACSA National Conference in Sydney on Tuesday 4 September 2018 – The session explored how building and reframing ‘compliance’ information such as quality indicators can provide consumers with the information they need to select your services as their preferred provider.
The presentation explored the findings and implications of COTA Australia’s ‘Measuring Quality and Choice in Aged Care’ project within the current policy landscape of initiatives to increase transparency and comparability (including service prices) for consumers. The project explored the quality indicators and pieces of information that consumers wanted to see as they journey through the ‘filtering’, ‘refining’ and ‘comparing’ stages of selecting their aged care provider.
Key issues to be discussed including findings that relating to Quality of Care, Quality of Life and Consumer Experience indicators, consumer want on knowing price and charges and how reviews/consumer experience can help consumers choose their preferred provider.
COTA Australia’s Measuring Quality and Consumer Choice in Aged Care project which sought to hear the views of older people, and their friends, family and other supporters on:
- How they go about choosing an aged care provider (residential aged care and in-home care/community support);
- What their views are about indicators of quality when choosing aged care services; and
- What other information they need/would like to make choices about aged care providers.
A copy of the full report can be found here
The project conducted an online survey with consumers, including their representatives (yielding 676 respondents) and providers of aged care services (yielding 416 respondents). In addition, focus groups were held in 7 capital cities (with 65 consumers and 93 providers registering to attend, and 30 consumers and 64 providers participating). In addition to the national survey and focus groups, 67 consumer participants were engaged in a SA-based deeper dive consultation through The Plug-In run by COTA South Australia.
This report includes:
- A summary of the project’s key findings including COTA Australia’s recommendations
- An overview of project findings
- A literature review on ‘thinking about choices and quality in aged care’
- Summary of the results from the online consumer and online provider surveys
- The Plug-In Project process ‘Quality in Aged Care through the eyes of consumers
