Residential care guide · Care Minutes
Care minute tracking software for residential providers
Connect your home's applicable targets to planned and reviewed care delivery. The 215 total and 44 RN minute figures are sector benchmarks, not identical targets for every home. Keep care-minute reporting and the separate 24/7 RN coverage responsibility visible to the people reviewing them.
Requirements and guidance
Use the targets, activity definitions and reporting obligations applicable to your residential care home and period.
- Assess delivery against the home's total and RN care-minute targets for the reporting quarter. Targets reflect the applicable resident classification mix.
- Count eligible activities delivered by specified RNs, ENs and PCWs/AINs. Allied-health and lifestyle services do not contribute to this care-minute requirement.
- Eligible direct care is not limited to face-to-face contact. Apply the current activity definitions and apportion hybrid roles and time across homes.
- Keep total minutes, RN minutes and continuous RN coverage distinct, including any applicable EN flexibility or coverage exemption.
- Review care time reported through the Quarterly Financial Report in GPMS and retain source records, approvals and corrections.
Reference: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Care minutes guide for registered providers of residential care homes (May 2026), sections 3-6; current 24/7 registered nurse guide; Aged Care Act 2024 and Aged Care Rules 2025. Source review: 6 September 2026.
What providers usually get wrong
Common mistakes: care minutes.
- Using 215/44 as a uniform home target rather than the target applicable to the home and reporting period.
- Including allied-health or lifestyle service time in the care-minute calculation.
- Treating all paid hours as eligible care, or excluding all non-face-to-face care without checking the activity definitions.
- Using a daily average to infer that RN coverage was continuous.
- Combining records from different homes or periods without documenting their allocation and review.
- Treating an incomplete timesheet feed as evidence of a care shortfall before investigating missing records.
How Statura handles it
Platform workflow: Care Minutes.
- Review planned and recorded care delivery alongside the home's configured targets.
- Inspect staff-category attribution and the underlying roster or time records before interpreting a total.
- Keep RN coverage review separate from total and RN care-minute planning.
- Identify missing or changed records and assign follow-up before reporting approval.
- Prepare reporting data for review and confirm the export and lodgement responsibilities in your demonstration.
- Trace a variance from the management view to the contributing records and review decisions.
Modules involved
The audit trail
Evidence for care minutes.
Use these records to structure your evidence review. In your demonstration, check their history, attribution and export options against your organisation's requirements:
- The home, reporting period, target source and effective date used in the calculation.
- Roster, worked-time and approval records with staff category and activity allocation.
- RN coverage records and review of any gaps or applicable exemption.
- Correction history, reporting versions, approvals and submission acknowledgements.
- Follow-up actions for missing data and unexplained variances.
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Read the guideCommon questions
Frequently asked questions about care minutes.
What are the current care-minute targets?
Use the targets applicable to your home and reporting quarter. The sector benchmarks are 215 total minutes and 44 RN minutes per resident per day, but home-specific targets reflect resident needs and can differ. The current Department guide explains the calculation and applicable EN flexibility.
Is RN coverage the same as RN care minutes?
No. RN care minutes measure eligible care time, while the 24/7 RN responsibility concerns continuous coverage. Review the home's coverage requirements, records and any applicable exemption separately from average minutes.
Which workers and activities count?
Apply the current definitions for RNs, ENs and PCWs/AINs. Allied-health and lifestyle services are excluded from this requirement. Some direct care is not face-to-face, such as eligible care-plan work. Leave, training, unpaid breaks and non-care duties must not simply be included as care time.
Can the software show a planning gap?
Compare your entered home targets with planned and reviewed delivery, then inspect the records behind any variance. A planning gap is a reason to investigate; a daily dashboard result is not a complete quarterly regulatory assessment.
What should we bring to a demo?
Bring the target source for your home, a de-identified roster or synthetic example, and the reporting questions your team needs to resolve. Confirm calculations, staff-category handling, approvals, exports and retained-system interfaces.
Scope the software around your team.
Evaluate this workflow on its own or as part of the wider operating record. Your proposal confirms modules, integrations, migration, training and fees. Keep the evidence your clinical, finance and IT reviewers need in the same buying decision.
See how Statura handles care minutes.
A tailored demonstration grounded in your provider's workflow, records and implementation requirements.