The length of time care recipients spend accessing aged care is an important measure of demand for services and levels of service utilisation. Improving understanding of length of stay (LOS), particularly when compared across residential aged care and community-based care, can provide insight into service delivery planning at the whole-of-government level.

The AIHW has been funded by the Department of Health (DoH) to explore options for the development of a dynamic data display tool focusing on LOS in aged care.

Current LOS data published as a part of the annual Residential aged care and Home Care web reports are well suited towards adaptation to a dynamic data display environment. These data require minimal effort to translate to a SAS VA environment, and are low risk in terms of confidentiality and reliability.