THE all new System Compliance Rating thing on www.myagedcare.gov.au with its four of dots can be disturbingly misleading.
More than 90 per cent of nursing homes pass inspections, so they get four dots. However, inappropriate sedation is used on an estimated 50 per cent of residents and at least 50 per cent of residents suffer from malnourishment.
It is therefore a mathematical certainty that in many four-dot homes, there are inappropriately sedated residents and residents who are malnourished.
It just doesn’t get picked up during “assessments”.
What a four-dot classification can also hide is that a fair few nursing homes have notched up a few non-compliances over the years. This is not reflected in a four-dot classification. If you want to find out if a home has any of those, you will need to dig deep down on www.agedcarequality.gov.au .
And just to show that aged care is not the army, where you have to earn your stripes, all new nursing homes will automatically receive four dots.
These are some of the things you need to keep in mind when looking for a suitable nursing home.
