Australian approaches to resident classification and quality assurance in residential care

This paper begins with an account of the structure of Australia's residential long-term care program, which was divided into two distinct levels of hostel and nursing home care until 1997. In response to changed policy objectives, a number of measures were then taken to create an integrated residential care system. The main measures were the development of a single scale for classification of resident care need and associated funding to replace two previous separate scales, and the implementation of a new quality assurance system, which included new standards for buildings as well as revised standards for care. I give accounts of these measures and the extent to which they have achieved their intended outcomes before proposing some further developments that could see closer links among pre-admission assessment, resident classification, and quality assurance.