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This paper explored whether there was a relationship between staffing and quality indicators in residential care for older people, in both rest homes and continuing care hospitals. A longitudinal survey of a sample of residential-care rest homes and continuing-care hospitals explored the relationship between direct-care staffing levels, skill mix and quality indicators. The study was conducted in r est homes (n=18) and continuing care hospitals (n=16) providing long-term care for people 65 years of age and over in the greater Auckland region in New Zealand. Participating rest homes and hospitals collected monthly data on direct-care staffing (registered nurses, enrolled nurses and support workers), quality indicators (falls, new fractures, pressure ulcers, weight loss, urinary tract infections, over nine medications a day, presence of indwelling catheters and use of daily restraints), over a six-month period. Logistic analysis revealed that in continuing care hospitals, as registered nurse/enrolled nurse time increased, there was a general trend of reduction in adverse events: falls, pressure ulcers, and daily restraint use. However , there were no significant associations between registered nurse/ enrolled nurse, or support worker staffing hours in rest homes in relation to the incidence of the five quality indicators: falls, weight loss, urinary tract infections, use of over nine medications, and the use of indwelling catheters. The study, utilising facility-level data, demonstrated a trend that increasing the combined time of registered and enrolled nurses to residents resulted in a decrease in adverse events in continuing-care hospitals. No other trends were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]