Transcript Quality Assurance in

Joe Mathews, CRC
Technical Assistance Advisor
Region VIII TACE
University of Northern Colorado
In developing services or products, quality
assurance is:
• any systematic process of checking to see whether a
service or product is meeting specified requirements
• designed to increase customer confidence and an
organization’s ability to improve work processes and
efficiencies
• allowing an organization to better compete with others
and provide the highest quality services
• Congress and State Legislatures are requiring specific
goals and outcomes for all programs funded with public
dollars.
• Open and transparent government is expected from the
taxpayer.
• Evidence based research, data and service delivery are
essential to ensure quality outcomes in agency
performance.
• Utilizing good data becomes a foundation for future
decision making.
• A comprehensive quality assurance system reinforces
continuous improvement.
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Open and transparent government
Specific goals and outcomes
Continuous improvement is expected
Goal is to reduce waste and inefficiency
Utilizing sound data becomes the foundation for future
decision making
An identified process for quality improvement that is
transparent, efficient and timely
Evidence based research, data and service delivery is critical to
assure quality outcomes in agency performance
Provides the state agency a methodical process to ensure
ongoing documentation in the areas of program improvement
• The Precept/Mission language of the Rehabilitation Act which
broadly guides the values and ethics of the national service culture.
• The Standards and Indicators representing the central focus of the
federal monitoring process of the states and their service
production.
• The State/Strategic Plan that connects the first two dimensions to
the community experience of the VR constituents.
• VR quality assurance systems should be forward thinking and
driven by the agency mission, vision and values. These in turn
drive how the organization operates.
• Services can be directly tied to the goals, which can be directly
tied to the mission. This point has been stressed by RSA in
monitoring reviews.
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Federal monitoring reports - Corrective Action Plans
(CAP) and Program Improvement Plans (PIP)
Standards and Indicators
State Plan
Strategic plan
Federal data reporting
Public hearings
Focus Forums
Reports to Governor
Legislative reports
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State Case Management, Fiscal and Data Systems
Agency Case Reviews
Comprehensive System of Personnel Development
(CSPD)
Input from Key Partners and Ancillary Programs
Evaluations of Service Delivery
Role and Advice from the State Rehabilitation Council
Structured Cycle of Calendared Events (Cycle of
Service)
A process for:
 receiving meaningful input
 strategy development
 implementation of processes and service delivery
 ongoing data collection
 evaluation of results
 acting on what is learned
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The process is then repeated and is always aligned with state
agency business cycles…
It is critical that this cycle be transparent and disciplined.
This public services cycle is necessarily different and distinct
from the commercial private sector marketing model.
It is specifically designed to constantly refresh the definition of
quality in direct response to your consumers and partners.
To assure full inclusion and consensus the process should
involve agency staff, key stakeholders and the State
Rehabilitation Council.
•VR trend toward accountability and continuous
improvement
•Greater emphasis on justification
•Recent push from state and federal agencies toward
program evaluation and quality assurance systems
 Building a community
 National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation
 http://ncrtm.org/
 Program Evaluation: Quality Assurance Summit
 Denver, Sept 16-17
 www.taceregion8.org
 Registration coming soon