South Australian aged care providers can now access their annual quality and safety reports, providing valuable insights to help improve care and compare performance across the state and nation.
Developed by the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) Research Centre at SAHMRI, led by Professor Maria Inacio and supported by the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University, the Outcome Monitoring System (OMS) reports monitor and evaluate care provided to older South Australians living in residential aged care or receiving home care packages.
The 2026 release marks the fourth year ROSA has provided the reports to South Australian aged care providers which summarise provider- and facility/service-level performance across 11 residential aged care and 15 Home Care Package service indicators.
The indicators were co-designed with the ROSA OMS Advisory Committee comprised of aged care providers, clinicians, consumer representatives and advocacy organisations.
Following a comprehensive review in 2025, this year’s reports include several new quality indicators aligned with contemporary aged care priorities and the strengthened National Aged Care Quality Standards.
New residential aged care indicators include continuity of primary care and activities of daily living, while new home care indicators include continuity of primary care, died at home and time not at home.
For the first time, providers can also access trend graphs showing performance over multiple years, while both residential aged care and home care reports now include ROSA Achievable Benchmarks of Care to help organisations identify realistic opportunities for improvement.
Professor Maria Inacio says the reports continue to provide valuable evidence to support quality improvement across the aged care sector.
“The uptake of ROSA OMS reports has increased year on year, and we hope this year’s release reaches more providers than ever before,” says Professor Inacio from Flinders University’s College of Health and Enablement.
“We are excited to introduce the new indicators this year, giving aged care organisations access to robust quality and safety information that can support quality improvement initiatives and inform service delivery that is tailored to their individual facilities and services.”
The 2026 Residential Aged Care reports include information on 16,094 South Australians living in 231 permanent residential aged care facilities across South Australia between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.
Of the 11 indicators examined, high sedative load (42.4%) was the most prevalent, followed by high continuity of primary care (40.2%), emergency department presentations (38.4%) and decline in activities of daily living (31.5%).
The 2026 Home Care reports include information on 24,746 home care package recipients receiving services from 115 providers across South Australia between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.
Among the 15 indicators examined, 49.8% of home care recipients received a chronic disease management plan, 46% had a high continuity of primary care and 43.5% had an emergency department presentation.
Alongside the individual provider reports, ROSA has also released statewide summary reports providing an overview of quality and safety outcomes in South Australia’s residential aged care and home care sectors.
ECH Inc., one of South Australia’s largest home care service providers and one of ROSA’s partners, has already received its 2026 OMS reports.
Head of Customer Experience at ECH Inc, Carolyn Dawkins, says the reports provide important insights for executive and clinical leaders seeking to enhance care quality.
“The reports have been extremely useful in helping us understand how our service performance compares with other providers,” says Ms Dawkins.
“Importantly, the reports are generated using data that is already routinely collected, meaning there is no additional reporting burden on our workforce. This is a terrific innovation in the way data can
be used to support quality improvement across the aged care sector.”
Individual OMS reports are available free of charge to eligible South Australian aged care providers by emailing the ROSA Research Centre at rosa.oms@flinders.edu.au.Further information is also available on the ROSA website.
Public facing brief reports are available that summarise the care provided in residential and home care services at the state level.
The ROSA Research Centre also offers consultation sessions with aged care providers to explain the information presented in the reports in more detail and answer any questions. To request your report or to book a consultation, email the ROSA Research Centre at rosa.oms@flinders.edu.au.