Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement in Home and Community Based Services

MINNESOTA

Grant Information

Name of Grantee

Minnesota Department of Human Services Continuing Care Administration

Title of Grant

Minnesota's Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement Project

Type of Grant

Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement in Home and Community Based Services

Amount of Grant

$499,880

Year Original Funding Received

2003

Contact Information

Jolene Kohn, Project Director
State Programs Administrator
Department of Human Services
444 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651–297–3805
jolene.kohn@state.mn.us

Subcontractor(s)

Four to be awarded.

Target Population(s)

Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waiver participants.

Goals

  • Enhance participant safeguards and support in exercising rights and preferences.
  • Support achievement of participant outcomes and participant-centered planning for, and satisfaction with, home and community based services (HCBS).

Activities

  • Improve the incident management reporting system.
  • Improve case managers' ability to respond to consumers' reports of problems with automated communications processes.
  • Obtain primary data about consumer's experiences directly from them to evaluate the current HCBS program and inform systems improvement strategies.
  • Increase consumer-based quality assessment and quality measurement of both services and quality of life outcomes for HCBS Waiver participants.
  • Create a comprehensive and integrated QA/QI "data mart."
  • Craft the design of the QA/QI "data mart" to permit future publication of provider profiles in MinnesotaHelp.info to provide consumers with information related to the quality of services that they can use to make choices among services and providers.

Abstract

This project will improve the design of participant safeguards and the functions of discovery and remediation related to these safeguards. It will also enhance the capacity of the HCBS waiver system by improving the measurement of satisfaction and achievement of personal outcomes for participants. This measurement data will be integrated with other division and agency data into a comprehensive statewide QA/QI "data mart."

The Quality Design Commission is a consumer group created to establish valued outcomes and recommend systems improvement strategies. By gaining substantial consumer and stakeholder input through the Quality Design Commission, Minnesota will improve its ability to systematically review the efficacy of safeguards and the extent to which HCBS waiver services support individual quality of life.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is the lead agency for this grant. The Department's Continuing Care Administration will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of project planning, implementation, and evaluation and will partner with the DHS Disabilities Services and Information Technology Strategies divisions, Quality Design Commission, Minnesota Board on Aging, Minnesota Department of Health Office of Health Facility Complaints, and eight county-based Adult Protection divisions, to achieve the following outcomes: (1) improved response time between discovery and remediation, (2) better identification of "poor" providers, (3) discernment of patterns or trends in complaints and investigations and targeted technical assistance, (4) consistent data to inform program decisions that ensure higher quality, and (5) use of consumer-defined measures of quality in both service delivery and service outcomes.

Formative evaluation methods will be designed and used to assure the quality of program management, and will track the ongoing effectiveness of project development and implementation. Summative evaluation methods will be designed to document impact on consumers and evaluate the entire project at the end of the grant period. Data for this evaluation will be derived from monthly and quarterly project reports, financial records, participant surveys, anecdotal information, and oral interviews with project partners.