Rest home information easier to find online

Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew has welcomed the launch of a new website that will make it easier for New Zealanders to find rest home information, including audit reports.

The website www.health.govt.nz/resthomes offers easy-to-access information on more than 650 aged care providers nationwide. This includes the types of rest home care, number of beds and length of time the provider is certified for.

Where available, current and previous audit summaries are also provided. In the future the website will show corrective actions as identified in their most recent audit and tracking of progress against these actions.

“This new enhanced website will, over time, provide a much clearer picture of how rest homes operate and the care provided to residents,” Mrs Goodhew says.

“As I announced in August this year, full rest home audits are also being made available online at www.health.govt.nz/fullaudits as part of a six-month trial.

“Nearly 90 recently completed full audit reports are now online. Further full audits will be added as rest homes undergo their certification audits, with around 250 audits expected to be online by the end of the trial.

“This is an important step in making the auditing process as transparent as possible. While there is a lot of useful information already in the audit summaries, the full reports show the detailed assessments carried out by auditors as part of the process.

“Today’s changes are part of a wider Government plan to make a difference in the lives of our older people, including an extra $70 million over four years in this year’s Budget, on top of the $928 million spent on aged residential care in 2012/13 financial year.

“This is part of an on-going project which has included upgrading systems for the on-going certifying and monitoring process as part of auditing rest homes, hospitals, fertility providers and residential disability services. Around $2.26 million has been spent on the Provider Regulation Monitoring System (PRMS) project so far including developing and implementing the new monitoring system and the public website.

“I am pleased with the number of improvements in the audit regime over the last few years, including the introduction of unannounced audits, third-party accreditation of auditing agencies, streamlined audits to focus more tightly on services directly affecting residents, - and today’s website launch.

“A number of these improvements were recognised by the Office of the Auditor-General in its 2012 report, which noted that since 2009 good progress had been made in certifying and monitoring rest homes. But we are always looking for ways to further improve these processes and the quality of our aged care facilities.

“These changes contribute to ensuring that we are able to provide the highest quality care and support for older New Zealanders,” says Mrs Goodhew.