Residential respite is an important support for many community-dwelling older Australians and their caregivers. However respite clients are often very frail with high or specific care needs, and on occasions respite admissions result in unplanned hospitalisation. Until recently, little has been known about their clinical outcomes, nor the experience of stakeholders and consumers regarding residential respite care (RRC). We conducted a series of studies to report the outcomes and experience of RRC: 1. Retrospective study of RRC patients admitted to an Australian tertiary hospital compared with RACF patients, including in-hospital mortality, hospital length of stay (LOS), and in-hospital complications. There were 166 RRC admissions and 332 matched RACF controls (4575 total admissions). Respite residents experienced higher mortality, LOS, in-hospital falls and delirium than RACF groups (p<0.001). 2. Perspectives of respite care: respite consumers, family members, residential aged care staff and health-care workers across metropolitan Melbourne participated in semi-structured interviews (23) and electronic surveys (12). Five key themes were identified: (1) reasons for using respite care vary; (2) expectations and understanding of respite care vary; (3) structural and funding factors influence the experience and quality of care; (4) care professionals often lack timely access to accurate health-care information; and (5) medical management and health-care needs of respite residents are complex. Although RRC recipients represent a minority of aged care admissions, they are at high risk of poor outcomes. Findings from multiple stakeholders highlight the benefits of and problems with RRC, and the interfaces between the aged care and health-care sectors. Understanding these issues is pivotal in informing interventions to improve RRC.