Ministry Improves Audit Process In Aged Care Sector

Media release from NZ Aged Care Association

MEDIA RELEASE

19 September 2009

Ministry Improves Audit Process In Aged Care Sector

The second report released by the Auditor General into the effectiveness of auditing standards of New Zealand rest homes highlights the improvements made in the Government’s certification and auditing process.

NZ Aged Care Association’s chief executive Martin Taylor says that like the first OAG report in 2009, the latest report is not about the quality of care provided by rest homes in New Zealand.

“The latest report is about the Ministry’s performance under the Health and Disability Act,” he says. “Since 2009, there have been a number of improvements in the consistency and quality of auditors and the processes that they follow. There has also been a rationalisation in the audit process with duplicate DHB and certification audits being combined.

“While this has been good news for most providers, for about 120 smaller rest homes with less than 30 beds, the changes have resulted in a 100 percent increase in audit costs. This undermines their financial viability in a sector that is already underfunded,” Mr Taylor said.

“As identified by the Auditor General, the one important part of the quality circle yet to be addressed is having reliable, comparable clinical data for benchmarking. The good news is if DHBs and aged care providers manage to successfully establish the web-based comprehensive clinical assessment package then we will have the ability to generate and analyse clinical results more accurately, Mr Taylor said.

ENDS

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