Resident satisfaction rises despite food and staffing shortage concerns

Four out of five aged care residents would recommend their home to someone in a positive sign of improvement from the Residents’ Experience Survey, but food quality remains a low point for many residents.

These findings, and more, have been revealed in a new report released by the Department of Health and Aged Care that looks at 2022 and 2023 Residents’ Experience Survey data. 

The Minister for Aged Care, Anika Wells, said the findings are a sign that ambitious reforms are having a positive impact. 

“While it’s great to see improvements across the sector, we know we must do more to raise the quality of residential aged care in Australia. We are determined to ensure older Australians have high quality and safe care as they age,” she added. 

Key points

• Over 37,000 residents were surveyed in 2023, equalling 20% of aged care residents, with 99% of all Government funded aged care homes represented
• Resident satisfaction was relatively high with 85% happy to recommend their home to someone, while they regularly praised the safety, respect, and kindness experienced in their aged care homes
• Although it received a 70% satisfaction rating, food was still the lowest-ranked question for 2022 and 2023
• Issues with staff communication and follow-up were also common
• Key attributes revealed that residents with high care needs were less satisfied, so too were Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and First Nations residents, and smaller aged care homes typically saw more positive feedback than larger homes

Resident satisfaction varies

While it’s expected that not every resident will share the same sentiment toward their experiences, there are notable differences between specific cohorts. 

First Nations residents reported the lowest overall satisfaction at 80%, with CALD residents, High Behavioural Support and High Daily Living Support cohorts all in the 82-83% range. By contrast, Low Behavioural Support and Low Daily Living Support residents recorded 90% and 88%, respectively. 

In addition, residents that lived in aged care homes that had fewer than forty-one residents, were in a rural/remote location, or were government operated responded more positively to the resident satisfaction question. 

Interestingly, there’s little variation between metropolitan and regional homes or medium and large-sized homes. 

Comfort, communication, friendship, care and homeliness were some of the reasons why residents rated their satisfaction so high. Freedom and autonomy also played a key role, showing the most improvement between the 2022 and 2023 Surveys. 

The largest improvements were seen in the two questions related to autonomy, ‘Do you have a say in your daily activities?’, which increased by 6%, and ‘Are you encouraged to do as much for yourself as possible?’, which increased by 4%. 

Food remains an issue

There were improvements across the board in almost every multiple choice question between 2022 and 2023. As highlighted already, the two questions related to autonomy saw the most improvement, while ‘Do staff follow up when you raise things?’ increased by 3%. 

All questions related to the care environment improved by 1-2%, as did the questions related to organisational aspects of care provision, except for ‘Do you like the food here?’. Food satisfaction remained stagnant at 70% and is just one of two responses with a satisfaction rating below 80%. 

Examples of resident requests shared by the Department of Health and Aged Care include: 

• ‘Need better quality meat’.
• ‘The meals need to have more fresh vegetables and fruit, not frozen, less carbs and stodgy stuff’.
• ‘Food is never hot if it’s served in my room’. 
• ‘Service at mealtimes is poor and staff need more training on how to serve food’. 
• ‘Food service is quite inconsistent, sometimes I get offered morning tea and sometimes they forget me’.

Examples of vegetarian residents receiving meat, a lack of multicultural options, small portions and repetitive menus were also mentioned. 

Breaking down food satisfaction, just 26% said they ‘always’ like the food, and 44% said they like it ‘most of the time’. Residents with high nursing requirements or in the largest aged care homes were the most dissatisfied. 

Rural and remote homes saw the best outcomes with 75% of responses positive, although that still leaves one in four who were unhappy with their meals. 

Staffing shortages have an impact

Overall, residents enjoy positive experiences with staff, although their responses show that staffing shortages are having an impact. More than half of respondents called for an increase in staffing, while 13% said there should be more staff training.

Individual responses also included:

• ‘I feel sorry for the staff because they are so short staffed and busy’.
• ‘There are staff shortages, less staff results in less care’. 
• ‘There needs to be more staff, it takes too long for them to respond when the bell is rung’. ‘Staff shortages mean you must wait for support… up to 30 mins sometimes’. 
• ‘They need more staff as it takes too long for staff to respond to the call button’.
• ‘The weekend staffing is mostly casuals and agency staff… there is a noticeable decline in services on the weekend’.

Delays with medication administration and limited access to allied health professionals were other areas of concern. 

Recurring trends saw residents with high daily living support needs and those in large homes make the most requests for staff-related improvements. In addition, issues with language barriers and unfamiliar agency staff were also common. 

Click here to view the Residents’ Experience Survey Report in full.