How the star ratings work
Every residential aged care home in Australia carries an Overall Star Rating out of five, published by the government and updated each quarter. It is built from four separate measures, and they are not weighted equally.
The four measures
Residents' experience — a third of the total
This is the one most people don't know exists, and it carries the most weight. An independent surveyor visits each home and interviews residents face to face, asking twelve questions about respect, safety, care, food and whether they would recommend the place. Around one in five residents nationally is interviewed each year.
It matters because it is the only measure that comes from residents themselves rather than from paperwork — and because the sample is far larger and more representative than the handful of online reviews a home might have.
Staffing
Homes must deliver a minimum number of care minutes per resident per day, including a set number from a registered nurse. This measure compares what a home actually delivered against its own target. We show both numbers and the gap, because a home can hold a respectable overall rating while sitting well below its staffing target.
Compliance
Whether the regulator has taken action against the home. A home under a current notice or sanction cannot score well here.
Quality measures
Clinical indicators the home reports itself: pressure injuries, physical restraint, unplanned weight loss, falls and medication management.
What the rating doesn't tell you
- Whether a room is available, or what it costs.
- What the home is like on a Sunday afternoon, or whether the staff are kind.
- Anything about the specific wing or floor a person would live on.
Treat the rating as the filter, not the decision. It is very good at telling you which homes to visit and which to skip. It cannot tell you which one is right for one particular person.
Where our numbers come from
Every figure on this site comes from the quarterly Star Ratings data extract published by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. We reproduce it, we don't adjust it. Each page shows the extract date it was built from.