Performance Improvement and Quality Management

Quality Management

Quality Management (or Quality Assurance) is the process of monitoring the services that behavioral health organizations deliver to ensure that what is being offered clients meets a high standard.

The Joint Commission requires that leadership at behavioral health care companies identify their priorities for data collection and the frequency that this data is collected. The thinking behind data collection related standards in the Comprehensive Accreditation in Behavioral Health Care (CAMBHC) manual is that organizations are able to verify that the care they deliver is safe and effective, and that the information can be used to make decisions to improve the quality of care, treatment, and services on an ongoing basis.

Areas of Data Collection

While The Joint Commission asks you to track data on certain topics such as adverse reactions to medications, critical incidents, and client outcomes, most of the decision making on what to collect data on is left up to leadership.

There's no shortage of items that can be tracked on a regular basis, with a few examples being:

Demographics
Services delivered by outside providers
Client discharges
Complaints
Finances

Converting Data to Information

Once your data is collected, what do you do with it? The Joint Commission wants you to take the data that you have collected and turn it in to information to help you make decisions about your organization. This newly translated information can help inform decisions that can range from whether or not you should open a new site, if the services you are delivering to clients is effective, or if your marketing budget is appropriately allocated.

Performance Improvement Initiatives

Once you've converted your data into information, it's time to make some decisions about your organization. Do you feel like too many clients are leaving the program without completing? Are you feeling like clients with certain diagnoses are not benefiting as much as they should from your program?

This is where the organization takes the time to look at the information and come up with a plan as to what needs to change. You have gathered your information, you've decided that an area of your organization isn't performing how leadership would like it to, and you have a strategy to address areas you find deficient. This plan could be anything from changing around the patient schedule to hiring additional staff that can provide services that may benefit the clients you serve.

Once you have outlined your plan you can activate it and track the results over a period of time defined in your plan. If the plan you have developed works, great! Continue to track data over time to see if your solution sticks, and you have successfully improved the performance of your program.

How we can Assist with Quality Management / Performance Improvement

Recovery Consultants has a long history of contracting with behavioral health care organizations and identifying certain areas that may be underperforming. We can work with your staff to update your Quality Management and Performance Improvement processes so you can be in compliance with Joint Commission standards and use these valuable tools to constantly improve the services delivered to patients.