Our Research

Project

Australian Consortium for Aged Care – Quality Measurement and Evaluation Toolbox (ACAC‑QMET)

Funder:

Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)

Project period:

2023‑2025

Funding announcement:

The Hon Anika Wells MP, Minister for Aged, announced the funding for this project in a media release on 20 October 2022. View the full release here: https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-anika-wells-mp/media/record-funding-for-dementia-ageing-and-aged-care-research

Project overview:

The ACAC-QMET will improve the quality of care provided to older Australians by defining what constitutes high quality care and the tools needed to monitor this across care settings. ACAC‑QMET will generate evidence to inform the key components needed to provide high quality person‑centred care. Our work will help care providers and the government understand the delivery of care quality and drive quality improvement to improve health and wellbeing.

Our aim: is to improve the consistency and quality of care for older Australians. We will create a pragmatic national framework for high quality person‑centred care that includes meaningful measurement and innovative evaluation tools.

ACAC‑QMET Objectives:

• Identify, synthesise, and evaluate existing national and international indicators, tools and data requirements for the evaluation of quality of care for older people across key care settings.
• Define a national framework for high quality person‑centred care.
• Develop innovative methods to address critical gaps in the evaluation of quality of care.
• Create the ACAC‑QMET Online Repository.
• Examine the feasibility and effectiveness of the ACAC‑QMET.

Chief Investigators: Prof Maria Inacio (ROSA, SAHMRI), Prof Gillian Caughey (ROSA, SAHMRI), Prof Johanna Westbrook (Macquarie University), Prof Len Gray (The University of Queensland), Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite (Macquarie University), Prof Peter Hibbert (Macquarie University), Prof Maria Crotty (Flinders University), Prof Tracy Comans (The University of Queensland), A/Prof Janet Sluggett (UniSA/SAHMRI), Dr Stephanie Ward (ADNeT/University of NSW), Dr Nasir Wabe (Macquarie University).

Associate Investigators: Ms Emma Cook (Department of Health, Director Star Ratings Section, Aged Care Group), Dr Robert Jorissen (SAHMRI), Marjorie Schulze (Consumer Representative), Prof Elizabeth Beattie (Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology), Dr Tesfahun Eshetie (SAHMRI), A/Prof Jyoti Khadka (Flinders University/SAHMRI), Prof Julie Ratcliffe (Flinders University).

Project team: Dr Daniel Bailey (The University of Queensland), Dr Xiaoping Lin (ADNeT), Dr Jenni Suen (Flinders University), Dr Ying Xu (Macquarie University), Dr Rangika Fernando (ROSA, SAHMRI), Olivia Ryan (ROSA, SAHMRI), Ms Susan Ben Dekhil (The University of Queensland), Dr Dylan Harries (ROSA, SAHMRI), Dr Johannes Schwabe (ROSA, SAHMRI), Dr Brian Pulling (ROSA, SAHMRI), Caitlin Wyman (ROSA, SAHMRI), Dr Isabelle Meulenbroeks (Macquarie University).

ACAC‑QMET Partner Organisations:

Aged & Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA)

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

SA Health, Office for Ageing Well (OfAW)

Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission (ACQSC)

Project outputs: This project is currently underway. Published outputs will be made available in the later stages of the project.

Project updates: The ACAC‑QMET investigators and project team members have held two face‑to‑face meetings to date. Year 1 was held at SAHMRI in Adelaide on February 8th 2023 where the team discussed the plans and vision for the project. Year 2 was held at The University of Queensland in Brisbane on April 16th 2024 and several updates on the project’s progress were discussed including the nearly complete scoping literature reviews to identify and characterise QIs used to measure and evaluate the quality of care for older people across eight key care settings and next steps.

ACAC‑QMET Project Team Meeting - SAHMRI, Adelaide (February 2023)

ACAC‑QMET Project Team Meeting - The University of Queensland, Brisbane (April 2024)