In order to overcome aged care challenges today, many forward thinking aged care facilities are exploring innovative approaches to improving residents care standards and services. DRs TQM aims to assist aged care facilities to implement and maintain Continuous Quality Improvement programs to take them beyond the Accreditation Mark III.

We have designed unique and proprietary Improvement Indicators© for aged care outcomes. This system is aimed at simplifying the Continuous Quality Improvement process. Indicators are not new when talking about standards in any field. The Department of Health in the United Kingdom launched their National Service Framework (NSF) for older people in April 2002. They have recognised that indicators are necessary to measure standards in their pursuit of excellence in the delivery of care for older people, albeit their standards are different to ours.

“Indicators should actually measure what they are intended to (Validity); they should provide the same answer if measured by different people in similar circumstances (Reliability); they should be measure change (Sensitivity); and they should reflect changes only in the situation concerned. In reality, these criteria are difficult to achieve, and indicators, at best, are indirect or partial measures of a complex situation”
(Source: Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. 1998. Herrigan, M.,Quest for quality in Canadian Health Care: Continuous quality Improvement. Second Edition)

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CHI) supports measurements with indicators. CHI states: “The advantage of a system of indicators is that it provides a series of recurring valid and reliable data, which can be used in analyses that focus mainly on two dimensions: variations over time and from place to place.

“Our Improvement Indicators intend to monitor the particular outcome for:

• Regulatory Compliance Level
• Customer (Resident/Family/Staff) Satisfaction
• Level of Risks
• Better Practice
• Staff Knowledge, Skills and Practices

Difference between DRs TQM and other consultancy services is that:

We are the only company to introduce Improvement Indicators© to the industry. These indicators were developed through extensive literature search for Doctoral study at Southern Cross University and they are able to stand for statistical testing.

We believe “working smarter not harder” is the way to go in improving standards and this system provides that opportunity to you. By engaging us you will receive an advantage of being at the forefront of the aged care industry. You will have a distinctive edge in Continuous Quality Improvement in aged care.