QUALITY
Think about the last time you were the customer. Were you purchasing something, having a meal in a restaurant, or were you simply seeking information about a service? We hope that when we are the customers, the service provider has taken action and implemented a plan to ensure that we are getting the quality we deserve. This is especially true when you think about the quality of services you would want provided to a family member or loved one when it is needed. What characteristics of the program, the staff or the environment are important to you? At Penn-Mar, we believe quality should be at the forefront of everyone’s efforts and that all staff are responsible for the quality of the services we provide.
To achieve this, each year, Penn-Mar develops a Quality Assurance plan that outlines the measures utilized in evaluating the quality of our programs. The development of this QA Plan, along with its ongoing assessment and improvement, is completed with the input of the individuals we serve, community and family members, and direct care and management staff. This thorough plan incorporates the standards we use for evaluating quality and an analysis of data from year to year. This information is then used to determine our areas of focus for each upcoming year. The intent of this process is to assure our means of assessment are reliable and efficient and that the results are integrated to improve quality.
This process is guided by a group of internal and external volunteers that we call the Quality Assurance Team. This team is responsible for overseeing and directing the agency in regards to all aspects related to quality. This includes reviewing, assessing, and making recommendations regarding Consumer Satisfaction Survey results, approving all behavior programs which use restrictive techniques, and reviewing and approving any restrictions of rights. The team also reviews agency policies and procedures to ensure the protection of human and legal rights for the individuals we serve, and reviews all potential admissions, transfers, and discharges of individuals. Furthermore, the team reviews all Maryland incidents and investigations to determine if the best course of action was taken and to make recommendations for improvement. In Pennsylvania, there is an independent Incident Management team which reviews, assesses and makes recommendations regarding reportable HCSIS incidents, analyzing HCSIS data, identifying trends in data, recommending policy and procedure changes as a result of the analysis, evaluating Certified Investigations and reviewing plan specific target areas.
These are just a few of the ways Penn-Mar promotes a high quality of service. There are numerous other internal tools and procedures utilized to assess our ability to provide safe, extraordinary services. For more information regarding Penn-Mar’s Quality Assurance Plan, please contact Jennifer Leidy at jleidy@penn-mar.org in Maryland or Jackie Stevens at jstevens@penn-mar.org in Pennsylvania.
