Accreditation is carried out by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation agency established under the Commonwealth 1997 Aged Care Act. All assessors have completed an approved training course and are registered as aged care quality assessors with the Quality Society of Australasia (QSA).
The focus of accreditation is for continuous improvement through assessment and is particularly important. This is why Thompson Health Care is constantly looking at the current standard of care and service provided, and continually aiming to improve.
There are four standards:
- Management systems, staffing and organisational development
- Health and personal care
- Resident lifestyle
- Physical environment and safe systems
There is no formula for determining a period of accreditation but in general terms, the longer the period of accreditation, the better the performance of the home:
- Truly exceptional homes may be considered for up to four years accreditation
- Homes that are performing well and comply with all or almost all expected outcomes, satisfy the Agency about their undertaking of continuous improvement and do not have a recent history of non-compliance would be awarded three years accreditation
- Homes that do not meet all or almost all the expected outcomes, or that have a recent history of significant non-compliance, or are in breach of some other obligations, may be accredited but for a lesser period.
