Care and Quality Auditing in Home Care - Industry Insights

QPS Benchmarking were invited to present at the recent Home Care Clinical Care and Quality Seminar held in Sydney on the 5^th of December 2019 facilitated by Lorraine Poulos & Associates. Silvia Holcroft, Director of QPS presented QPS Benchmarking Key Insights into “Care and Quality Auditing in Home Care”.

The presentation topics included;

• Applying the Aged Care Quality Standards in practice,
• Corporate Clinical Governance,
• The newly developed QPS Clinical Audits which assist organisations monitor and manage high-impact & high-prevalence risks and
• QPS Key Performance Indicator Benchmarked Results providing Industry Insights.

The seminar was in direct response to the feedback from the Royal Commission including the need for robust clinical governance in home care and an increased focus on clinical care due to the higher acuity of consumers receiving home care services.

2019 QPS Benchmarking Consumer Experience Survey Results;

The QPS Consumer Experience Survey has been aligned to the new Aged Care Quality Standards, each survey question and domain has been mapped to the relevant consumer outcome, organisational statement and requirements for the standards. The newly revised survey was undertaken and benchmarked by QPS clients in Quarter 4, April-June 2019.

We have shared some of the QPS Benchmarking Consumer Experience Survey findings below that were presented at the seminar including the mega trends identified in the survey results. 

Consumer Experience Index 2019: 89.20% 2018: 86.74% 2017: 84.49%	Consumer Experience NPS 2019: +66.27 2018: +60.68 2017: +50.17
The Consumer Experience Index result for Home Care is 89.20% and has continued to improve over three consecutive years.	The NPS can range from -100 to +100 and is a measure of your consumers overall loyalty to your organisation, which determines your potential for positive word-of-mouth and growth. The higher the Net Promoter Score, the more likely consumers will recommend the service to family and friends. Net Promoter Score and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

Reasons Consumers Promote their Home Care Service Provider?

“The care and professionalism of the organisation”.

“Staff are capable of doing what they need to do for the best outcome to my wellbeing.”

“Staff members have been caring and friendly and helpful.”

“Quality of staff. Very well trained”.

“The service is caring and efficient.”

Consumer Profile - Mega Trends

Gender:

• 28.65% of consumers receiving Home Care Services are males, increasing by 1.98% this year.

Age:

• The majority, 25.40% of consumers are age 85 to 89 years, followed by 21.65% aged 80 to 84 years.
• Consumers aged 70 to 79 years have increased by 6.33% over the past year.

Cultural Diversity:

• 4.95% increase in cultural diversity, Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Mandarin, Aboriginal / Torres Strait Islander, Dutch, Filipino, German.

Length of Service:

• 31.41% of consumers have been receiving services for 1 to 2 years, an increase of 7.17%.
• 30.87% receiving services for 3 to 5 years.
• 2.77% increase in consumers receiving services in the past year.

Most Common Services received by Consumers:

• 62.82% Support Services
• 23.07% Personal Care

• 14.11% Nursing, Allied & Clinical Services, increasing by 5.95%.

Main Reason Consumers Choose Service Provider:

• 40.19% of consumers make their decision based on the providers reputation for the high quality of services.
• 11.72% based on cost of service, increasing by 5.16%.

Future Service Demands:

• 16.83% of consumers surveyed have requested additional services.

• Services requested include: Respite Services, Nursing Services, Podiatry, Physiotherapy, Hydrotherapy.

Survey Domain Strengths & Improvement Opportunities

Top 3 Strengths;

1st - Choices & Respect 91.68%

• Consumers feel that they are always treated with dignity and their lifestyle choices are respects, so they can live the life they choose.

2nd - Care & Service Delivery 91.63%

• Consumers trust and feel safe with the staff providing their services and care.

3rd - Culture & Lifestyle 91.39%

• Care and services are tailored to the cultural needs and customs of consumers, and are supported to maintain their identity and lifestyle.

Top 3 Opportunities for Improvement;

1st - Service to Support Health & Well-Being 86.63%

• To provide consumers with information about other support services available to improve their wellbeing.

2nd - Complaints & Feedback 86.86%

• To respond and address feedback concerns and complaints raised by consumers.

3rd - Wellbeing & Overall Satisfaction 88.18%

• To provide easy to understand and accurate information about fees and how funds are spent. Supporting consumers to pursue meaningful activities in their life.