Associations between residents’ experience and compliance, staffing and clinical quality Star Ratings for Australian residential long-term care homes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21467902 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicole C Sutton (0000-0002-4413-3003, University of Technology Sydney), Nelson Ma (0000-0002-0341-1003, University of Technology Sydney), Jin Sug Yang (0000-0002-0793-9083, University of Technology Sydney), Michael Woods (0000-0003-3813-4138), Mike Woods (0009-0002-6336-2829, University of Technology Sydney), Rachael Lewis (0000-0003-4958-0811, UNSW Sydney), Rachael L Lewis, Deborah Parker (0000-0003-2552-8613, University of Technology Sydney) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 164 |
| Pages | 105521 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0168-8510 • E-ISSN: 1872-6054 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105521 |
| PMID | 41353913 |
| OpenAlex | W4416919608 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 38 |
BACKGROUND: Public reporting systems are increasingly used to promote transparency and accountability in the delivery and quality of long-term care (LTC). Australia's Star Ratings system includes resident experience measures, offering an opportunity to assess their added informational value relative to more commonly used quality indicators. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether resident experience ratings capture distinct aspects of quality in residential LTC homes, this study investigates their association with regulatory compliance, staffing, and clinical quality ratings. METHODS: A pooled panel with a two-period change analysis was used, drawing on 2023-2024 Star Ratings data from 4,957 home-quarter observations across 2,642 unique Australian residential LTC homes. Multivariate analyses assessed associations between resident experience ratings and ratings for compliance, staffing, and clinical quality, adjusting for home-specific characteristics. RESULTS: After controlling for home-specific characteristics, the residents' experience rating exhibits a positive but modest association with compliance and clinical quality ratings, but no significant association with staffing ratings. However, annual changes in residents' experience ratings were not significantly associated with corresponding changes in other rating categories. CONCLUSIONS: Resident experience ratings provide distinct insights into care quality that are not strongly reflected in ratings for compliance, clinical or staffing. Their inclusion in national quality frameworks strengthens the person-centredness and comprehensiveness of LTC quality measurement
MEDLINE · Nursing homes · Quality assessment · Quality management · Residential care · Staffing · Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |