Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement in Home and Community Based Services

CONNECTICUT

Grant Information


Name of Grantee

Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation

Title of Grant

Connecticut Quality Review and Improvement

Type of Grant

Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement in Home and Community Based Services

Amount of Grant

$499,000

Year Original Funding Received

2003

Expected Completion Date

September 2007

Contact Information


Beth McArthur, Project Co-Director
860-418-6132
beth.mcarthur@po.state.ct.us

Laura Nuss, Project Co-Director
460 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06016

860-418-6130
laura.nuss@po.state.ct.us

Subcontractor(s)

Cynthia Gruman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Connecticut Health Center
Center on Aging
263 Farmington Avenue
Farmington, CT 06030
860-679-7960
gruman@uchc.edu

CGI-AMS
Greater Boston Area
600 Federal Street
Andover, MA 01810

978-946-3647
www.cgi-ams.com

Target Population(s)


All people served by the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation (DMR).

Goals


  • Develop the capacity to input, store, analyze, and report quality indicators from the Department's new quality review system.
  • Ensure and improve quality for individuals living in their own or family homes.
  • Involve individuals and their families in defining, determining, and improving quality.
  • Develop and provide a wide range of training activities for various participant users of the new quality system.

Activities


  • Develop browser-based technology to enable secure, real-time data entry and access to DMR applications.
  • Design additional data management systems and modify existing systems to incorporate new quality indicators for analysis, reporting, and follow-up functions.
  • Establish a methodology to risk-adjust data, establish valid benchmarks, and analyze quality and incident data to identify patterns, trends, and variables that predict risk.
  • Develop new or revise all current DMR policies and procedures related to participant safeguards.
  • Develop multimedia materials in English and Spanish to support education activities, and provide home safety and emergency preparedness information and resources to individuals and families.
  • Establish a Self Advocate Leadership Institute that will develop consumer skills to participate in the Department's quality initiatives.
  • Create a Self Advocate Speaker Bureau, and establish Family and Individual Networks to support self-determination.
  • Identify areas for training and technical assistance to improve quality review techniques and service enhancements.
  • Train families and individuals who are managing their own services to effectively use enhanced Web-based recruitment tools to find potential employees, and to use local emergency backup staff arrangements.

Abstract


The Connecticut DMR is using Real Choice Grant funding to strengthen its quality review system by developing data applications to provide more timely, accurate, integrated, and comprehensive information that will identify trends and provide a foundation for improvement initiatives. The grant project also includes activities to involve consumers and family members in the design, implementation, and evaluation of DMR's new quality review and improvement system. As part of this effort, DMR will establish state-level review teams and regional and statewide quality improvement councils with consumer and family membership. Self-advocates will also be involved in a Leadership Institute, which will train them to assume influential roles in the quality system. The planned outcomes of this grant include

  • a fully operational quality data management system.
  • a risk adjustment methodology to compare provider performance fairly against established benchmarks for various quality indicators.
  • quality indicators for safety and emergency preparedness and a review of methodologies for people who direct supports in their own or family homes.
  • quality review and improvement mechanisms that incorporate meaningful roles for consumers and families.
  • more knowledgeable and informed consumers and families who are influential in improving HCBS waivers and self-direction options in Connecticut.