Looking Ahead: Care Management Launches Quality Standards

Additional Information

For related information please view our quarterly newsletter.
Winter 2007 Newsletter

Archived Articles

03/30/2010 - Jack Flora
03/30/2010 - Carol Gradkowski
03/30/2010 - Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Finali...
03/30/2010 - Service Coordination Expands to Marian P...
03/30/2010 - Relocation Support for Seniors
03/30/2010 - 2010 Quality Improvement Plans Underway
03/30/2010 - Senior Companion Program
03/30/2010 - PSO 2010 Community Partners Concert Feat...
12/28/2009 - In Memory of Mary Anne Kelly
12/28/2009 - 2009 Quality Improvement Plan

Over the past three years, the Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging has partnered with Ursuline Senior Services and other care management providers to develop quality standards for our services. The quality standards identify guidelines for “best practices,” with the goal of providing the highest quality, consumer-focused care to older adults in the community.

The completed Care Management Quality Standards were recently implemented in our Community- Based Options (CBO) Program. As part of this ongoing process, the CBO program will be developing an annual Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), outlining areas where growth and development will occur.

For this current year, the CBO Program has identified two areas in the QIP for development. These are:

Sustainability – Assuring there are quality staff.

For this target area, the CBO Program will focus on reinforcing staff retention, providing comprehensive initial training, providing staff with adequate support and supervision, and providing opportunities for training and education for staff development. This will include activities such as examining employee benefits, recruitment, training enhancements, and quality assurance activities.

Adaptability –Practicing crisis management.

In this area, the CBO Program will provide training, support and tools for care managers to respond to an individual consumer crisis, or a communitylevel crisis impacting many aging residents. The program will be working on developing protocols for certain crisis situations, to serve as a guide and tool for care managers.

Please check out upcoming newsletters for further updates on the progress of our Quality Improvement Plan!