McDonald, T. A., 2004
Conference presentation, Sydney
ABSTRACT
Objective: To examine improvements noted across the aged care industry in Australia in relation to links between achievement of quality in key areas of care, and access to useful feedback on performance.
Methods: A review was undertaken of strategies used in aged care to access quality outcome information and transfer this to organisational policies and services in a way that reinforces good practice and prompts revision of unproductive practices. The review incorporated experience gained through providing telephone help-line advice to service providers and was compared with data gathered through quality benchmarking across Australia.
Results: The aged care industry in Australia and elsewhere is driven towards management outcomes associated with quality audits and performance benchmarking which are often filtered through cost-benefit analyses linked to management priorities that are aligned to regulatory compliance. The fragility of clients of aged care services accentuates the need for accurate, useful and timely feedback on quality performance in key care and clinical governance areas across a range of aged care services.
Conclusions: The role of quality indicators in ensuring that employment trends within the aged care industry are positive and remain so, is critical to the ongoing successful management of aged care services to vulnerable people. The transfer of knowledge on clinical outcomes discovered through quality audits, have an urgent element to them in terms of the human misery that results from less than optimal practices in clinical care.
CITATION McDonald T. (2004) Facilitating the transfer of quality outcomes information to agde care practice 5th Biennial Dementia Conference, Quality in Dementia Care Forum. Sydney, 24 June.
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