Quality Standards Resource Centre

This resource provides guidance on ensuring appropriate patient placement in healthcare settings to prevent the spread of infections. It supports healthcare workers in assessing and allocating beds based on infection risks, promoting effective use of PPE, dedicated equipment, and environmental cleaning as part of transmission-based precautions. 

This resource provides detailed guidelines on cleaning and disinfecting workplaces, including aged care settings, to minimise the spread of COVID-19. It outlines cleaning procedures for different surfaces and items, the proper use of disinfectants, and disposal of materials. It supports workplace hygiene by ensuring routine and post-exposure cleaning protocols.

This survey resource provides a framework for assessing antimicrobial prescribing practices in aged care and other health settings. It supports health facilities in evaluating the appropriateness of antimicrobial use through audit tools and data collection, contributing to antimicrobial stewardship and improved patient care quality.

This provider poster is an educational tool is part of the Commission’s resource bundle to improve antibiotic use for urinary tract infections in aged care services.

This resource provides information and resources on wound prevention and management. It offers clinical guidelines, educational materials, and support for health professionals, caregivers, and people affected by wounds. The focus is on best practices, evidence-based care, and promoting awareness to improve wound healing outcomes across various settings.

This resource offers tools and information for clinicians supporting people with blindness or low vision across a range of settings including aged care. It includes free patient materials, brochures in multiple languages, fact sheets on eye conditions, case studies, tips on communication, assistive technology recommendations, and professional development webinars to enhance patient care and referral processes. This resource may apply to healthcare contexts outside of aged care. Please consider the applicability of this resource to your care setting.”

This resource provides the 2021 Australian guidelines on wound healing interventions for diabetic foot disease (DFD) and foot ulcers (DFU). It includes evidence-based recommendations for healthcare professionals on appropriate practices, such as sharp debridement, exudate control, adjunctive treatments, and decision-making pathways to enhance wound healing and improve patient outcomes.

This resource provides free training materials for hearing assistance in aged care and hospital settings. It includes a Good Practice Guide, instructional video, poster series, and training modules. The resources aim to equip staff, volunteers, and family carers with knowledge to support people with hearing loss effectively.

This resource provides information and strategies for supporting older adults with age-related dual sensory loss or deafblindness. It includes a resource booklet and video developed to help aged care workers understand and address the needs of people with combined vision and hearing impairments to reduce isolation and enhance care.

This resource provides downloadable tools to support the management of pain in residential aged care facilities. It covers comprehensive pain assessment, pain management strategies for communicative and non-communicative residents, complementary therapies, opioid considerations, and quality indicators, aiming to enhance care practices and improve residents' quality of life.

This resource, Mob Smiles, provides culturally appropriate oral health information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes brochures, posters, and fact sheets tailored for different life stages such as children, teenagers, elders, and pregnant women. The content focuses on dental care, healthy habits, and oral health education.

This guide addresses the assessment and management of urinary incontinence in older adults. It outlines a stepwise approach to evaluation, including identifying transient causes, detailed history-taking, medication review, and focused examination. It provides information on management including lifestyle measures, medications, bladder drainage options, and potential referral to specialists based on individual needs and the type of incontinence.

This guide addresses the assessment and management of urinary incontinence in older adults. It outlines a stepwise approach to evaluation, including identifying transient causes, detailed history-taking, medication review, and focused examination. It provides information on management including lifestyle measures, medications, bladder drainage options, and potential referral to specialists based on individual needs and the type of incontinence.

This guide covers fall prevention and management in older adults, focusing on assessing fall risks, involving multidisciplinary teams (e.g. physiotherapists, occupational therapists), and recommending both non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions. It includes steps for post-fall assessments, medication review, and strategies for preventing injuries, with a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes in aged care.
 

This guide addresses mental health in older adults, including social isolation, depression, anxiety, suicide risk, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. It provides consensus-based recommendations for tailored interventions, diagnosis through validated assessments, and management strategies that combine clinical and non-clinical approaches.

This guide provides recommendations for dermatological care in older adults, addressing skin integrity, sun damage, bruising, and wound management. It highlights factors affecting skin health, like systemic disease, medication, and environmental exposure. It recommends regular skin assessments, non-pharmacological interventions, moisturisation, and tailored approaches for managing conditions like ulcers, pruritus, and skin cancer in aged care settings.

This guide provides strategies for managing pain in older adults in aged care, focusing on assessment, non-pharmacological treatments, and pharmacological interventions. It includes practice points on appropriate medication use, considerations for pain assessment tools, and recommendations for safe management, including tailored care and treatment monitoring to improve quality of life.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (the Commission) undertakes a range of regulatory activities to monitor compliance and mitigate risk to aged care consumers. The Commission has incorporated spot check monitoring of infection control practice into its usual regulatory activities. You can find more information about Infection control spot checks here. 

To Dip or Not to Dip (TDONTD) is a quality improvement intervention successfully implemented in UK and Australian aged care homes to improve UTI assessment and antibiotic prescribing appropriateness.

This implementation guide has been drawn from the experiences of homes and champions who have implemented TDONTD, along with feedback from aged care nurses and personal care assistants who have used TDONTD resources.

Infection prevention and control helps to stop the spread of germs like bacteria and viruses that cause respiratory infections and gastroenteritis. Hand hygiene is a very important part of this. 

In this video you will learn how to clean another person's hands.