Civil affairs authorities in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province say they will develop a rating system for nursing homes to measure their services and management, Heilongjiang Daily has reported, on May 29, noting that the system is not compulsory for all nursing homes.

One city official elaborated, “Harbin has been working on policies for the service sector’s old-age care since 2010, but there’s still an absence of a more detailed standard to rate the players.”

The rating move is the result of a new regulation on nursing home management for seniors, which was announced by the local government last month, and according to which, candidate nursing homes will be ranked from five-star (the top) to one-star, based on living conditions, equipment, facilities, services, and management.

Five-star units will have to meet certain requirement, for example, 80-percent of the nursing staff having certificates and no more than two beds for a 45-square-meter area. And, for every 5-10 senior citizens who can take care of themselves, there should be a paramedic available.

Now, some nursing homes have already taken action to improve their facilities and services, in hopes of getting at least one star. Currently, the authorities are handling the matter but nursing homes can apply for the rating themselves and the civil affairs authorities will ask a third-party to handle it.

The results will be announced in October.

Shao Fenghua, owner of one of the nursing homes, says they‘ve been busy preparing for the appraisal by consulting with civil affairs and working with renovation teams to decorate their interior to meet the 2-star standards in indoor space and trained personnel, but they are still five beds short.

The rating standard calls for no fewer than 50 beds for a 2-star nursing home Rating so Shao adds, “We’ll do our best to get the star rating and take the chance to provide better service for the elderly.”

Jiang Ou, of the Harbin Social Sciences Academy, says that this rating method will help inspire competition and in turn improve nursing home services and will also improve discipline in the nursing home business and give elderly people more choices.

Some people in the business have suggested that all nursing homes be included in the appraisal system and that the authorities actually reward the top star homes.

The Civil Affairs Bureau shows a total of 215 nursing homes in its registry, 210 of them private operations and five operated by larger enterprises, institutions or organizations.