Measuring outcomes of community aged care programs: challenges, opportunities and the Australian Community Outcomes Measurement ACCOM tool

Beatriz Cardona

doi:10.1186/s12955-018-0918-7

Abstract

Measuring health and wellbeing outcomes of community aged care programs is a complex task given the diverse settings in which care takes place and the intersection of numerous factors affecting an individual’s quality of life outcomes. Knowledge of a strong causal relationship between services provided and the final outcome enables confidence in assuming the care provided was largely responsible for the outcome achieved (Courtney et al., Aust J Adv Nurs 26:49–57, 2009). The Department of Health has recently reported on the findings of The National Aged Care Quality Indicator Program – Home Care Pilot (KPMG, National Aged Care Quality Indicator Program – Home Care Pilot, 2017). The Program sought to test various tools to measure quality of life outcomes of their community aged care programs. Some of the key issues raised in the study reiterate the findings from The Australian Community Care Outcome Measurement (ACCOM) pilot study (Cardona et al., Australas J Ageing 36: 69–71, 2017), including the value of the ASCOT SCT4 tool (Adult Social care Outcomes Toolkit, http://www.pssru.ac.uk/ascot/downloads/questionnaires/sct4.pdf) to measure social care related quality of life (SCRQoL) in community aged care programs in the Australian context, the collection of additional data to map the relationship of various variables such as functional ability, demographic characteristics and quality of life scores and the governance and administration of measurement tools for the purpose of quality reporting and consumer choice.

Highlights

Measuring health and wellbeing outcomes of community aged care programs is a complex task given the diverse settings in which care takes place and the intersection of numerous factors affecting an individual’s quality of life outcomes
The Australian Government responded to this report with the ‘Living Longer Living Better’ [6] reform package, which saw among other things, the introduction of a centralised entry point to aged care services, individualised funding models, and the Correspondence: beatriz.cardona@mq.edu.au Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia transition from the Home and Community Care (HACC) and the Community Aged Care Packages into the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) and the Home Care Packages (HCP)
The KPMG Home Care Pilot and the Australian Community Care Outcome Measurement (ACCOM) study highlighted important methodological and governance considerations including the choice of instruments and the value of collecting functional and demographic data to explain possible links and factors accounting for quality of life scores and be able to ascertain change or impact that can be attributed to service provision

Summary

Introduction

Measuring health and wellbeing outcomes of community aged care programs is a complex task given the diverse settings in which care takes place and the intersection of numerous factors affecting an individual’s quality of life outcomes. The findings of the KPMG Care Pilot study in relation to the suitability of the ASCOT SCT4 tool and the need for the collection of additional data including demographic information support the findings of the Australian Community Care Outcome Measurement (ACCOM) pilot study [12].

Results

Conclusion