Muskie School of Public Service

This report is a final list of recommended “dashboard” indicators for use in assessing the quality of HCBS Waiver services. The indicators are organized according to the HCBS Quality Framework to provide a common frame of reference. The report includes recommendations for implementing the “dashboard” indicators, lessons learned throughout the project and a plan for sustaining the work of this grant.

This document describes IDA, a proposed generic, virtual information service, supporting both operational (e.g., client service) and analytical needs for integrated data. In IDA, source data would stay with the agency that owns it and be made available to an end-user only when permitted by the owning agency. IDA responds to many of the persistent barriers to data integration that confront the State.

This is the first in a series of papers synthesizing the ideas and practices of states as they improve the quality of home and community based services (HCBS) and supports for older persons and persons with disabilities. Building on the experiences and challenges of the QA/QI Systems Change grantees, the paper addresses four fundamental questions about quality management. The intent is to provide an account of current practice, and a structure for how states view their options.

This paper reviews literature and provides a summary of CMS initiatives in the area of quality measurement and improvement over five years up until 2002. This review applied a wide lens to identify quality strategies in settings of care and delivery systems both within and outside long term care. This paper will serve as background for a meeting with policymakers and experts to assess the relevance and limitations of identified methods to improve the services and outcomes in HCBC programs.

The Muskie School of Public Service maintains this database as a public source of information on quality measures that have been developed for home and community based services. You may search this database in a number of ways to find indicators of interest. <br>*Search the quality indicator database by HCBS quality domains, age groups, populations, and data sources <br>*Browse the quality indicator database by quality indicator developer <br>*Browse quality-related surveys by developer

The purpose of the AccessMaine site is to provide access to information about community-based services for persons with disabilities, their families, and providers in the State of Maine.

The HCBS Work Book is a technical assistance guide to assist state agencies with their HCBS quality improvement efforts. It provides step-by-step guidance on how to conduct quality improvement projects within the HCBS waiver program, and illustrates the principles of quality improvement in an easy to use format. The Work Book was developed for CMS by the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.

These materials are from the national conference sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and held in Nashville on May 2-3, 2002. The goal of the conference was to provide an opportunity for information exchange among decision-makers in the design and implementation of quality management/improvement. This conference was designed to facilitate communication around quality management among state staff, federal agency staff, providers, and consumers/advocates.