QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ACCREDITATION
From January 1998, Residential Aged Care homes (nursing homes, hostels, community aged care packages) are being assessed against four standards as part of the new accreditation-based quality assurance process.
The quality assurance process involves management, staff, residents and their representatives (relatives, carers) making judgement, as partners, about how to achieve the best outcomes for their service and taking the appropriate action to do so.
A major focus of the new quality assurance framework is the requirement for services to continue to improve the services that they provide.
Accreditation is the formal recognition that rewards and Aged Care home's effort in implementing and maintaining a quality service. The level of accreditation indicates their performance as assessed against the Standards.
Assessment for accreditation requires the management of an Aged Care home to demonstrate that their system works to deliver quality services.
The key assessment questions are:
- Is a system in place to deliver quality services?
- Is the system used?
- Does the system work?
- How will the system be improved?
Essential to this assessment for accreditation process is input from residents and their representatives / relatives as to their level of satisfaction with the quality of the service.