The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission is working on expanding the use of Consumer Experience Reports (CER) into the home and community aged care sector. These reports are aimed at promoting consumer choice by capturing the consumer experience of the quality of care and services in aged care.
Developing the reports
CERs are developed from the results of interviews. To ensure outcomes of the reports for Home Care are fit for purpose, the Commission has evaluated and learnt from our experience implementing consumer experience reports for residential aged care. Lessons learnt include the value of pilot testing with the most diverse range of consumers possible, and the benefits of reviewing and periodically revising questions to reflect ongoing feedback.
For information on the reports we currently publish for residential aged care services please see our Consumer Experience Reports in residential aged care services pages.
Developing new questions
CERs are developed from the results of interviews with consumers of aged care services using a standardised set of questions designed to capture consumers’ experiences. The draft questions for the CERs for Home Care have been developed from the results of a review of research literature in the field of consumer choice and quality. They are also linked to the new Aged Care Quality Standards.
Literature Review
The literature review to help develop the questions was undertaken by the Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing (AIPCA) at La Trobe University.
The resulting report AACQA Literature Review: Choice and quality in community care (March 2018) identified eight themes relating to choice and quality that are important to consumers making decisions about home- and community-based care:
- Control
- Local residence
- Interpersonal interaction
- Flexibility
- Affordability
- Administrative and financial literacy
- Safety
- Timeliness of service provision.
Pilot testing
We commenced pilot testing of the draft questions in November 2018. The first phase of pilot testing evaluated the validity, comprehensibility and test-retest reliability of the questions.
From April 2019, we will also be pilot testing methodologies for seeking responses from consumers – including telephone interviews, paper and online surveys. The process will pay particular attention to ethics and privacy principles.
While consumer participation in the pilot will be voluntary, we aim to include a broad sample of respondents to ensure the representation of consumers from culturally diverse backgrounds and those living in metropolitan, rural and remote locations.
For updates on the development of CERs in home and community aged care, please subscribe to our Quality Bulletin newsletter.
For background information on CERs see the Commission’s Consumer Experience Report web pages.
Consumer Experience Interviews Pilot Phase complete
The Consumer Experience Interviews (CEI) for home services pilot phase has now been completed. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) worked closely with La Trobe University to conduct the pilot testing and refine a set of questions for consumer experience surveys for home services. The La Trobe Report has made recommendations on a set of validated questions for inclusion in interviews with consumers. The report also highlights the telephone interview as the preferred mode for most consumers. Click on the link to view the CERHC pilot Phase 2: Report to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Consumer Experience Interviews Implementation for Home Services
Consumers of Home Care Packages or Commonwealth Home Support Program will be asked the standard set of questions as part of the Commission’s performance assessment against the new Aged Care Standards from July 2019. Consumers are advised how they can contact the Commission by phone or to attend the service during the site visit to provide feedback. Since 1 August consumers can also use our online option via Lonergan Research’s website. Further work is underway to determine an appropriate sampling methodology to enable a published report (CER) for home services.
Home Services Consumer Experience Report questions
The Consumer Experience Report (CER) commenced in residential aged care in 2017. The pilot testing of the CER for home services was led by the Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing and La Trobe University. Pilot testing aimed to test the questions and determine the best methodology for collecting the questions (face to face, paper, online or telephone). The Commission collaborated with the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) and the Council on the Ageing (COTA Australia) who assisted with recruitment resulting in over 200 completed surveys by consumers of home services.
The following set of questions are being implemented for the CER for home services:
| Never | Some of the time | Most of the time | Always | |
| Do staff treat you with respect? | ||||
| Do the staff know what they're doing? | ||||
| Do staff follow up when you raise things with them? | ||||
| How often do the staff come on time? | ||||
| Do you participate in making decisions about what services you get? | ||||
| Do you get the services you need? | ||||
| How often are your services updated? | ||||
| Do your services help you to live the best life you can? | ||||
| Is the information you are given about services easy to understand? | ||||
| Do you get value for money? | ||||
| Do you trust your service provider to do the right thing by you? | ||||
| What would you say was the best thing about the service(s) you get? | ||||
| How could the service(s) be improved? |