Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement in Home and Community Based Services

NEW YORK

Grant Information


Name of Grantee

New York State Department of Health, Office of Medicaid Management

Title of Grant

New York's Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement Project

Type of Grant

Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement in Home and Community Based Services

Amount of Grant

$495,811

Year Original Funding Received

2003

Expected Completion Date

September 2007

Contact Information


Cynthia Schaffhausen, Acting Director
Division of Consumer & Local District Relations
518-474-5271
cxs05@health.state.ny.us

Charlotte Mason, Project Coordinator
Division of Consumer & Local District Relations
One Commerce Plaza, Room 826
Albany, NY 12260
518-474-5271
cmm24@health.state.ny.us

Subcontractor(s)

To be determined by an RFA process in first year of the grant.

Target Population(s)


Participants in the State's Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) waiver program and in the Long-Term Home Health Care Program (LTHHCP), which provides services at home to elderly persons and individuals of all ages with disabilities.

Goals


  • Develop improved methods of enlisting individual waiver participants and other involved community members in active roles in the quality assurance and quality improvement (QA/QI) process for two of New York's Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers.
  • Obtain information from waiver participants and their families about the quality of waiver services received, and use that information to increase service quality, respond to issues immediately, eliminate problems, and identify areas of best practice.

Activities


  • A TBI QA/QI Board will be established to identify outcome measures and participant satisfaction measures, and provide input for a plan to implement an information hotline and an analysis of TBI waiver service issues.
  • The LTHHCP will establish an effective means of collecting and analyzing information about participant satisfaction through the ongoing use of the Participant Experience Survey.
  • A QA/QI database will be developed and implemented, which will be a permanent component of the Medicaid claims payment system, and will provide information about the availability and quality of waiver services.

Abstract


This project will ensure participants' health and safety and will create enduring systems change in the waiver programs' QA/QI processes. The systems developed from this project will include the functions of discovery, remediation, and continuous improvement of the quality of services provided to waiver participants in the target populations.

The project will establish a QA/QI Board to address a number of quality issues related to the TBI waiver, including evaluating the current QA/QI program and making recommendations for changes. Information will be gathered in statewide forums, which will include participants, family members, providers, and other interested parties. Depending on the results of this Board's work, the project will also create a QA/QI Board for the LTHHCP.

This grant will allow the State to contract with an entity to administer the Participant Experience Survey to LTHHCP participants. The results of this survey will be analyzed, providing an independent source of information about participant satisfaction. The information collected will allow the Department to accomplish two goals: (1) to share the results of the survey with local districts, providers, and participants so that they will learn from best practices or jointly take action to correct specific issues that have been identified; and (2) to pursue systemwide changes that affect the total waiver population.

Finally, the project will develop a QA/QI database for use initially with the TBI waiver and, ultimately, with the LTHHCP. This database will capture data on participant demographics, provider information, participant satisfaction, and incidents reported. This information will be used to generate reports showing where quality improvement is needed, and identifying best practices to be used as models.