Star ratings for aged care homes reveals the best and worst in South Australia

Every aged care home in SA has been rated, with 106 homes rating four stars or above. See full list and search homes.

Julie Cross and Sayee Shree Ravi Sankar

2 min read

December 20, 2023 - 10:45AM

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Eight aged care homes in South Australia have been exposed as needing significant improvement or improvement, according to new Government Star Ratings.

The facilities received 1 or 2 stars in the latest release of data.

A 1 star rating means the home needs significant improvement, while a 2 star rating means improvement is needed.

South Australia has more homes in the bottom two categories than Queensland, which has six. NSW has 22 and Victoria 11.

The homes were assessed on compliance, staffing ratios and quality, as well as what residents thought on issues from how caring staff are to the food.

A complex algorithm using all four measures provides each home with an overall rating from 1 to 5, 5 being the best.

See the Aged Care star ratings for SA homes in 2024 here.

South Australia has six homes with the top rating of 5 stars, which means they are excellent and 100 facilities received a 4 star rating, which is classed as good.

The Star Ratings, launched a year ago to help families and potential residents make an informed choice when looking for a facility, shows that overall there has been a significant improvement in standards from last year.

The number of homes across Australia that are underperforming has dropped by 152 since 2022, while the number of aged care homes with 4 and 5 stars has substantially improved. There are 1,329 homes (54 per cent) now delivering good or excellent care (4 and 5 stars) which is an increase of 352 since December 2022.

A star rating of 3 means a home is satisfactory.

The My Aged Care site where the data is published has also been popular and has been viewed 634,592 times in a year.

Minister for Aged Care, Anika Wells during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells said the Albanese Government is delivering its promise to lift the standard of aged care in Australia.

“The biggest improvement reflected in Star Ratings over the past year is the experience of residents,” Minister Wells said.

“Residents are reporting the quality of care they are receiving is getting better, with 95 per cent of aged care homes now delivering acceptable, good or excellent care.

“Prior to Star Ratings, residential aged care providers didn’t have a way to benchmark and monitor their performance or improvement over time. Now they do and it’s proving valuable for their management teams.”

Older Persons Advocacy Network CEO Craig Gear said it was pleasing to see the quarter on quarter improvements, with more homes getting 3 and 4 star ratings, and fewer with 1 and 2 stars.

“What we are hearing is that people looking for a facility are going and consulting the Star Ratings and that is forming part of their decision,” Mr Gear said.

“We are encouraging people already in homes to look at the Star Ratings and for providers to have conversations with the residents about what they mean and what their plan is to improve because everyone deserves 5 star care.”