What are Star Ratings?
The Australian Government introduced Star Ratings for residential aged care homes in December 2022 as part of sweeping reforms following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Each facility receives an overall Star Rating from 1 to 5 stars, designed to give families a quick, comparable snapshot of quality.
Star Ratings are published on the My Aged Care website and are updated quarterly. They draw on multiple data sources to provide a more rounded view of each home than any single measure could offer on its own.
The four sub-ratings
The overall Star Rating is built from four separate sub-ratings. Understanding each one helps you interpret what a facility's rating really tells you.
Residents' experience
Based on confidential interviews conducted with residents by independent assessors. Residents are asked about their quality of life, whether they feel safe, whether staff treat them with respect, and whether they have enough say in their daily routines. This is one of the most meaningful sub-ratings because it captures lived experience directly from the people receiving care.
Compliance
Reflects the facility's history of meeting the Aged Care Quality Standards, based on audit and assessment results from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Homes with recent non-compliance findings or sanctions will score lower. A strong compliance record suggests the home consistently meets minimum safety and quality standards.
Staffing
Measures the amount of care time each resident receives from registered nurses, enrolled nurses, and personal care workers. Facilities reporting higher care minutes per resident per day score better. From October 2024, homes must meet a mandatory minimum of 200 care minutes per resident per day, including 40 minutes from a registered nurse.
Quality measures
Based on clinical indicators that homes report quarterly — pressure injuries, physical restraints, unplanned weight loss, falls with major injury, and medication management. Lower rates of these adverse outcomes indicate better clinical care.
How ratings are calculated
Each sub-rating is scored on a 1-to-5 star scale. The overall Star Rating is a weighted combination of these four sub-ratings, with Residents' Experience and Quality Measures carrying the most weight. The exact weighting formula is set by the Department of Health and Aged Care and is periodically reviewed.
A facility cannot receive an overall rating higher than its Compliance sub-rating. Even if a home scores well elsewhere, unresolved compliance issues will cap the overall result — a safeguard designed to keep basic safety standards front and centre.
What to look for
- Look beyond the overall number. A home with 4 stars overall but only 2 stars for Staffing tells a different story than one with consistent 4-star sub-ratings across the board.
- Pay attention to Residents' Experience. This sub-rating comes directly from the people living there and can reveal things data alone cannot capture.
- Check the trend. A 3-star home on an upward trajectory may be a better choice than a 4-star home trending downward.
- Consider staffing carefully. Higher care minutes per resident generally means more individual attention and faster responses.
Limitations
- Data lag. Ratings are updated quarterly, so they may not reflect very recent changes.
- Self-reported. Staffing and some quality indicators rely on data reported by the facilities themselves.
- New facilities. Recently opened homes may not yet have enough data for a complete Star Rating.
- They don't capture everything. Warmth of staff interactions, food quality, atmosphere, and responsiveness to individual preferences are hard to measure with data alone.
That's why CareRank combines government Star Ratings with accommodation pricing, location analysis, and reviews to give you a more complete picture.
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