COA - Council On Accreditation

	Performance and Quality Improvement

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Introduction

COA's Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI) standards encourage organisations to use data to identify areas of needed improvement and implement improvement plans in support of achieving performance targets, programme goals, client satisfaction, and positive client outcomes.

A hallmark of COA’s comprehensive approach to PQI is the promotion of a broad-based, organisation-wide process inclusive of staff and stakeholders, as a vital, necessary management tool. The PQI standards reflect what experts know about what it takes to start, and maintain, a useful quality improvement programme. Taken together, the standards include practices that counter the tendency of organisations to place responsibility for quality improvement and results in one or a few individuals. As such, the standards recognise the value of involving staff at all levels of the organisation.

COA's PQI standards provide significant guidance directed at the role of leadership, support for measurement, use and communication of improvement results, and staff training and support practices that reach the full organisation. The standards promote wide support and full participation in the improvement process.

Interpretation: Organisations use a variety of terms for this work including Quality Improvement, Continuous Quality Improvement, and combinations of this and similar language. While the language chosen by COA intentionally highlights both performance and quality, certain terminology may be more comfortable for and familiar to the organisation. The standards are intended to accommodate the organisation’s preferred language and not to prescribe particular techniques; for example, a root cause analysis, as is sometimes associated with Performance Improvement (PI), may or may not be a tool the organisation chooses.

Note: Please see Self-Paced Training: Performance and Quality Improvement (CA-PQI) and Chart: CA-PQI Planning_Cycle in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.


	PURPOSE: An organisation-wide Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI) programme advances efficient, effective service delivery and the achievement of strategic and programme goals.

RELATED FILES


	PERFORMANCE A measure of how well an organisational system provides services to consumers. Performance is often based on key indicators, such as rates of service, cost per consumer, degree of satisfaction with services, and extent of consumer access to services.


	QUALITY In this context, the extent to which contemporary and generally recognised standards for professional practice are met and exceeded, and desirable service outcomes achieved.


	PROGRAMME A system of services offered by an organisation. For example, an organisation providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programmes to different populations, e.g., a mental health programme for adolescent teens. The word “programme” can be used interchangeably with the word “service” or to describe specific programmes.


	SERVICE One or more organisation-operated programmes or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organisation’s material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organisation that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licenced to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	STAKEHOLDER Any person, group, or organisation that has a vested interest in the services provided by the organisation. Examples: clients, consumers, personnel, funding organisations, referral organisations, vendors, and governmental bodies.


	PRACTICE Established actions or ways of proceeding in the regular performance of organisational duties. Policies and procedures often guide practice.


	LEADERSHIP A nonprofit organisation's leadership consists of its governing body, chief executive officer, and may also include its senior management. In a public agency the term refers to the agency head and administration team. The term "leadership" is not generally applied to for-profit organisations. With respect to COA standards, in for-profit organisations the term leadership applies to the owner and board of directors if one exists.


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	PRESCRIBE To issue lawful order from a practitioner for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a specific client that is communicated directly to a pharmacist in a licenced pharmacy.


	CLIENT See SERVICE RECIPIENT


	MANAGEMENT See ADMINISTRATION