The study examined the prevalence of and variation in indicators of the quality and safety of care provided to older Australians who received subsidised long term care during 2019, by type of care: residential aged care or home care packages. In 2019, 244,754 people received residential aged care in 2746 facilities; 149,104 people received home care packages through 2407 home care services.

Marked national variations were found in the quality of aged care between residential facilities and between home care services in antibiotic use, emergency department presentations, high sedative load, longer waiting times for home care services, home medicines reviews and chronic disease management plans.

The findings could be used to identify areas of aged care that could be targeted by quality improvement programs.