Comprehensive Quality Assurance Program for Community Based Long-Term Care

摘要

Northwestern University's Center for Health Services and Policy Researchdeveloped a new quality assurance (QA) system for the Illinois Department on Aging's (IDoA) Community Care Program (CCP), which contracts with providers of adult day care and low-tech homecare services to the elderly. This QA system emphasizes the importance of measuring processes and outcomes of services. It expands the QA system to extend beyond the agency, to include direct measures of client, staff and informal caregiver satisfaction with care. Preliminary project activities centered around instrument development. IDoA's existing compliance review system and instruments were analyzed in order to determine items to retain. Twenty-four Focus Groups were conducted with primary stakeholders of homecare and adult day care services across Illinois, in order to assess perspectives for assessing QA broadly across multiple interested stakeholders. In addition, a Technical/Advisory Task Force, composed primarily of adult day care, homecare and case management administrators, was organized to provide input on instrument development and revision; coordinate their staff, clients and caregivers to participate in Focus Groups; and participate in on-site pilot reviews.