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The Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) have released its latest ROSA Outcome Monitoring System (OMS) report, a quality and safety monitoring and benchmarking system designed to promote quality improvement, transparency, and accountability for the aged care sector.

Summary of the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) Research Centre

The Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA), established in 2017 by the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), is a collaborative initiative that includes Flinders University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of South Australia, along with aged care providers like Silverchain, ECH Inc., and Bolton Clarke, as well as critical organisations such as the Council on the Ageing SA (COTA SA), SA NT DataLink, and SA Health. As of July 2024, ROSA is an academic partnership with the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University.

ROSA is a national, multisectoral, integrated data platform that leverages advanced analytics to create high-quality evidence to drive improvements in Australia’s aged care sector. By uniting 17 datasets from federal and state-based data custodians and research groups, ROSA has created a cutting-edge 'big data' resource to enhance our understanding of the care provided to our ageing population. 

The ROSA Research Centre team is comprised of 30 researchers dedicated to monitoring and evaluation of the health, service use, social welfare, medication use, mortality, and other outcomes of more than 3.85 million people who received or are receiving aged care services nationally.

overview of the registry of senior Australians outcome monitoring system (rosa oms)

The ROSA OMS is a pragmatic and low-burden quality and safety monitoring and benchmarking reporting system that delivers critical information to aged care providers to support evidence-based quality improvement activities. 

ROSA OMS offers both public and individualised provider reports to residential and home care package providers in South Australia. These reports summarise provider and facility-level performance using 12 risk-adjusted indicators for residential aged care services and 15 risk-adjusted indicators for home care package services.

The ROSA OMS is the result of a collaborative co-design process with an advisory team comprised of aged care provider partners, peak body representatives, clinicians, researchers, advocacy organisations, and consumer representatives. To ensure fair performance comparisons, the quality indicators are risk-adjusted to account for the varying characteristics and health status of individuals across different facilities and providers. Notably, five of these indicators align with concepts included in the Australian Government's National Mandatory Aged Care Quality Indicator Program.

The ROSA OMS reports offer valuable benchmarking opportunities and aim to stimulate conversations on best practices within and between providers, thereby enhancing the care of older South Australians.

The 2024 Residential Aged Care report described the variation in the quality and safety of care received by 11,669 South Australians enrolled in ROSA between 2021 and 2022. Of the 12 indicators examined, antibiotic use (54.1%) had the highest prevalence, followed by exposure to a high sedative load (38.4%), the incidence of emergency department presentations (35.7%), and exposure to chronic opioid use (20.6%).

The 2024 Home Care report described the variation in quality and safety of care experienced by 16,843 home care package recipients in South Australia enrolled in ROSA in 2021-2022. Of the 15 indicators examined, antibiotic use (48.0%) had the highest prevalence, followed by the incidence of emergency department presentations (40.9%) and exposure to a high sedative load (26.2%). Only 2.6% of home care package recipients had a home medicines review, and less than half (43.7%) received a chronic disease management plan. 

The ROSA Research Centre offers consultation sessions with South Australian-based aged care providers to explain the information presented in the reports in more detail and answer questions.

South Australian providers and facilities can request to receive a copy of their individualised ROSA OMS report by emailing the ROSA Research Centre at rosa.oms@sahmri.com. Further information is available on the ROSA website. 

The ROSA OMS reports will be available every 12-18 months, depending on data availability. The following report (including 2022-23 data) is planned for release in early 2025.