Quality Assurance in State VR Agencies

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Quality Assurance in State VR Agencies

• Joe Mathews, CRC
• Technical Assistance Advisor
• Region VIII TACE
• University of Northern Colorado

2

• What is Quality Assurance?
• In developing services or products, quality
• assurance is
• any systematic process of checking to see whether
  a service or product is meeting specified
  requirements
• designed to increase customer confidence and an
  organizations ability to improve work processes
  and efficiencies
• allowing an organization to better compete with
  others and provide the highest quality services

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• So Whats the Big Deal and Why Now?
• Congress and State Legislatures are requiring
  specific goals and outcomes for all programs
  funded with public dollars.
• Open and transparent government is expected from
  the taxpayer.
• Evidence based research, data and service
  delivery are essential to ensure quality outcomes
  in agency performance.
• Utilizing good data becomes a foundation for
  future decision making.
• A comprehensive quality assurance system
  reinforces continuous improvement.

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• General Concepts
• Open and transparent government
• Specific goals and outcomes
• Continuous improvement is expected
• Goal is to reduce waste and inefficiency
• Utilizing sound data becomes the foundation for
  future decision making
• An identified process for quality improvement
  that is transparent, efficient and timely
• Evidence based research, data and service
  delivery is critical to assure quality outcomes
  in agency performance
• Provides the state agency a methodical process to
  ensure ongoing documentation in the areas of
  program improvement

5

• Building Blocks
• The Precept/Mission language of the
  Rehabilitation Act which broadly guides the
  values and ethics of the national service
  culture.
• The Standards and Indicators representing the
  central focus of the federal monitoring process
  of the states and their service production.
• The State/Strategic Plan that connects the first
  two dimensions to the community experience of the
  VR constituents.
• VR quality assurance systems should be forward
  thinking and driven by the agency mission, vision
  and values. These in turn drive how the
  organization operates.
• Services can be directly tied to the goals, which
  can be directly tied to the mission. This point
  has been stressed by RSA in monitoring reviews.
  

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• Essential Components
• Federal monitoring reports - Corrective Action
  Plans (CAP) and Program Improvement Plans (PIP)
• Standards and Indicators
• State Plan
• Strategic plan
• Federal data reporting
• Public hearings
• Focus Forums
• Reports to Governor
• Legislative reports

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• Essential Components Continued
• State Case Management, Fiscal and Data Systems
• Agency Case Reviews
• Comprehensive System of Personnel Development
  (CSPD)
• Input from Key Partners and Ancillary Programs
• Evaluations of Service Delivery
• Role and Advice from the State Rehabilitation
  Council
• Structured Cycle of Calendared Events (Cycle of
  Service)

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• Cycle of Service
• A process for
• receiving meaningful input
• strategy development
• implementation of processes and service delivery
• ongoing data collection
• evaluation of results
• acting on what is learned

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• Cycle of Service Concepts
• The process is then repeated and is always
  aligned with state agency business cycles
• It is critical that this cycle be transparent and
  disciplined.
• This public services cycle is necessarily
  different and distinct from the commercial
  private sector marketing model.
• It is specifically designed to constantly refresh
  the definition of quality in direct response to
  your consumers and partners.
• To assure full inclusion and consensus the
  process should involve agency staff, key
  stakeholders and the State Rehabilitation Council.

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• Conclusion
• VR trend toward accountability and continuous
  improvement
• Greater emphasis on justification
• Recent push from state and federal agencies
  toward program evaluation and quality assurance
  systems

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Community of Practice

• Building a community
• National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation
• http//ncrtm.org/
• Program Evaluation Quality Assurance Summit
• Denver, Sept 16-17
• www.taceregion8.org
• Registration coming soon