Aged care & healthcare

Slip testing for aged care and healthcare

Nowhere are the consequences of a fall more serious than in aged care and healthcare. Residents and patients often have reduced mobility and balance, so a surface that would be acceptable in an office can be a genuine hazard in a care corridor or bathroom. We document resident wet areas, corridors and communal floors to AS 4663:2013 in a report boards and quality teams can use.

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Objective data for boards and quality teams

Falls are among the most serious risks aged care providers manage, and flooring is one of the few fall factors you can measure objectively. We help providers document the slip resistance of resident areas, wet rooms and communal spaces, giving boards and quality teams data for their risk registers and continuous improvement plans.

There is no single rule that says aged care floors must achieve one P classification. Several layers of obligation point the same direction. The Aged Care Quality Standards require providers to deliver a safe and comfortable service environment and to manage risks to residents. Falls prevention is a core part of demonstrating that, and objective evidence about floor surfaces supports it. Aged care facilities are also workplaces: WHS legislation requires providers to manage the risk of slips, trips and falls for staff, contractors and visitors so far as is reasonably practicable. Providers owe residents and visitors a common law duty to take reasonable care, and flooring is a foreseeable, well-understood hazard. For new builds and refurbishments, the National Construction Code mandates slip resistance classifications for elements such as stairs and ramps, referencing AS 4586.

For existing floors, the practical benchmark is HB 198:2014, measured under AS 4663:2013. Our slip resistance requirements in aged care article sets out that picture in full. This page is the service view: what we test, how we schedule around care, and what the report is for.

Typical focus areas

Resident bathrooms and assisted showering areas
Corridors, dining rooms and communal lounges
Kitchens, laundries and service areas
External paths, courtyards and entry ramps
Hydrotherapy and wet therapy areas

Aged care requirements guide

High-stakes surfaces

Resident wet areas, corridors and communal floors

Floor safety expectations in aged care sit above almost every other facility type. Many residents have reduced balance, strength, vision or reaction time; some use walking aids or are recovering from previous falls. For an older person, a fall that would bruise a younger adult can mean a fracture, a hospital admission and a lasting loss of independence.

Bathrooms and assisted showers

Resident bathrooms and assisted showering areas are wet, soapy, and used by the least steady residents, often barefoot or in socks. They are the highest-stakes surfaces in the building. Wet pendulum testing to AS 4663:2013 is the method that matches that condition. Stairs, ramps and wet barefoot areas are also the first group to triage if a result falls short.

Corridors and communal rooms

Corridors, dining rooms and communal lounges are long, hard, frequently polished surfaces where residents walk unassisted. Polish build-up here is a common hidden problem. Dining rooms add food and drink spills to high resident traffic several times a day. Dry friction testing can sit alongside wet pendulum testing on corridors away from wet areas, so the report covers the condition pedestrians actually experience.

Kitchens, laundries and service

Staff zones with water, oil and detergent underfoot. A staff injury is a WHS matter as much as a resident fall is a care matter. Wet processing areas and kitchens sit among the location types recommended to have high wet slip resistance. See also commercial kitchen floors.

External paths and hydrotherapy

External paths, ramps and courtyards are weather-exposed and often algae-prone in shaded spots; HB 198 recommends higher classifications outdoors. Hydrotherapy and wet therapy areas are wet barefoot surfaces. Hotels, gyms, schools and hydrotherapy pools in health and aged care settings all carry the same duty: manage the slip risk of wet barefoot areas so far as is reasonably practicable, and be able to show it.

The trade-offs, and why floors drift

Aged care flooring decisions are not as simple as maximum grip everywhere. Very aggressive surfaces are harder to clean and can increase infection-control workload. Residents who shuffle rather than stride can catch on abrupt texture changes, and surfaces must also suit wheelchairs, walkers and lifting equipment. The goal is the appropriate classification for each location per HB 198 guidance, achieved with surfaces that still clean well and roll well. Testing data lets you target genuine problem areas instead of over-treating the whole building.

A floor that tested well at handover can sit classes lower a few years later. Polish and sealer build-up from frequent burnishing of vinyl floors, cleaning chemical residue when dilution or rinsing drifts from spec, wear paths that polish smooth in corridors and doorways, and new maintenance contractors changing products or methods without anyone assessing the slip effect all push grip down. That is why testing is a program, not a one-off event.

A defensible testing program

Baseline the high-risk areas and document results against HB 198:2014
Prioritise and rectify the worst gaps first; often the fix is a cleaning regime correction
Retest after rectification, refurbishment, a new finish, or a change of cleaning contractor
Repeat periodically; many providers align retesting with their audit and accreditation cycles
Keep reports, actions and retest results in risk and compliance documentation

Testing around care

Testing in a care environment needs to be done respectfully: small areas cordoned briefly, resident routines disturbed as little as possible, and scheduling around meals and quiet hours. We schedule visits around operations, including after hours for aged care facilities and other sensitive environments.

If a surface falls short, Premrest provides a scope of works and quote in the client app for slip treatment or non-slip coating, then we retest.

A report boards can table

Every engagement includes wet pendulum and dry friction results with P and D classifications, plain-English interpretation against HB 198:2014, and recommendations ranked by risk. That is the document quality teams can put in a risk register and boards can read without decoding a pendulum table.

Regulated sectors such as aged care, healthcare and education operate under safety and quality frameworks where falls are a headline risk. Documented floor testing is a natural part of demonstrating that duty is being met. If you cannot say with confidence which of your floors meet the guidance for their location, a baseline test will tell you, and the report will tell you what to do about anything that falls short.

Aged care and health facilities in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

Residential aged care and healthcare facilities throughout the three metro areas, with the same method and the same report format.

Also see commercial buildings, retail and industrial, or the industries hub.