Quality Plans
Quality planning helps us to continually improve what we do. It provides an opportunity to:
- look at all aspects of your business and how the parts affect the whole
- tackle improvements in manageable steps
- time changes to accommodate other organisational demands.
Recent contracts with the Bay of Plenty District Health Board now require health
providers to include a copy of their annual Quality Plan.
You may find a reference in Section C11 of your contract:
You will have a written implemented and at least annually reviewed Quality Plan
designed to improve outcomes for consumers.
This plan may be integrated into your business plan. It will describe how you manage
risks associated with the provision of services. The plan will outline a clear quality
strategy and will identify the organisational arrangements to implement it. The
plan will be of a size and scope appropriate to the size of your service.
What do you need to have in your Quality Plan?
- Risk Management and management of events.
Occupational safety and health.
Reporting of incidents
- Quality Assurance.
Internal audit. How do you know that your processes are working?
- Document development & control.
Your policies and procedures are current and kept together.
- Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).
What are you doing to:
- maintain your compliance with standards
- improve your service and develop your workforce?
- Consumer Rights.
Your complaints process (How do you resolve and manage complaints?):
- stakeholder/customer feedback
- privacy concerns
- process to view files.
- Consultation/networking.
How do you network to keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the sector and to
incorporate the views of your stakeholders in the design and delivery of your service?
What meetings/hui do you/staff attend and how often?
(with thanks to Chris Angus, Manager, Quality & Risk, Mental Health Services)
Resources
For some general quality improvement concepts with practical examples see the Quality Improvement Toolbook
on the Canadian Health Quality Council website.
For Mental Health and Disability Sector Standards
see the Standards in Action web site.
Consumer participation in health is an Australian site which includes
a range of evaluation tools.
Quality Improvement in the Health and Disability Sector (Ministry of Health)
This site focuses at the system level.
Change Management toolkit (non-Government site)