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Rest home certification and audits

If you or a family member is planning to move to a rest home – or is currently living in one – you’ll want to be sure it provides the best quality care possible.

So does the Ministry of Health. All rest homes and aged residential care facilities are certified and audited to ensure they:

How do I know how a rest home is doing?

The Ministry publishes audit summaries for rest homes. You can read these at the list of certified rest home providers.

The summaries include:

  • an overview of the rest home’s performance
  • a table showing how well the rest home does against the Health and Disability Services Standards – standards covering more than 200 aspects of quality and safety.

Please note: The audits for some rest homes don’t have summaries yet. These will be published next time they’re audited.

How often are rest homes audited?

Rest homes are certified for set periods of time – normally between one and four years. Once this is up, they must be re-audited and their certification renewed.

There is also an unannounced spot audit around the middle of a rest home’s certification period, checking that progress has been made on outstanding areas identified in the earlier certification audit and that standards haven’t slipped.

In addition to audits, rest homes have to report to their DHB on how they are addressing issues found at audit.  These improvements are then verified at the next audit event. 

Rest homes may also be inspected by the Ministry under the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001 in the event of a serious complaint.

How are the audits conducted?

Designated auditing agencies audit rest homes. Each audit team includes at least one registered nurse.

The audit team looks at:

  • staff
  • the way residents are cared for
  • how the staff interact with residents
  • the general environment
  • clinical records, policies and procedures.

They also interview staff, residents and family members.

Page last updated: 21 February 2013