Summary

The length of time care recipients spend accessing aged care is an important measure of demand for services and levels of service utilisation. Improving understanding of length of stay (LOS), particularly when compared across residential aged care and community-based care, can provide insight into service delivery planning at the whole-of-government level.

The AIHW has been funded by the Department of Health (DoH) to explore options for the development of a dynamic data display tool focusing on LOS in aged care.

Current LOS data published as a part of the annual Residential aged care and Home Care web reports are well suited towards adaptation to a dynamic data display environment. These data require minimal effort to translate to a SAS VA environment, and are low risk in terms of confidentiality and reliability.  Based on this the following recommendations are made:

  1. Develop a dataset containing client and service provider information for 2005–2015 for:
    1. implementation in SAS VA
    2. assessment of confidentiality and reliability issues
    3. development of data views.
  2. Consult with key stakeholders.
  3. Investigate alternative software options to support reporting of LOS in a dynamic data display tool.
  4. Implement annual updates in line with NACDC data refresh cycle to provide the latest information available.
  5. Further expand as Pathways in Aged Care (PIAC) linkage map and other data on LOS become available.
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