ERIC Number: ED185481
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1979
Pages: 30
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Quality Assurance in Mental Health Centers.
Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta, GA.
Federal legislation requires mental health centers to establish quality assurance programs which seek to maintain or improve the quality of a center's health care services. Three general measures of quality are: (1) input standards for staff and the setting providing care; (2) process standards for the quality of treatment; and (3) outcome standards for the results of care. Federal guidelines recommend that mental health centers model their quality assurance programs after the Professional Standards Review Organization's (PSRO) assessment method. However, PSRO activities evaluate physical health care, and they focus primarily on input measures of quailty. Contrarily, quality assurance programs in mental health centers focus on the treatment process. Clinical peer review is the major monitoring tool, and only clinical personnel may conduct peer reviews and make quality assurance decisions. Although every mental health center's standards should reflect normative mental health standards, each center's standards should be flexible, meet local needs and be self-imposed. (Author/MLT)
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. of Mental Health (DHEW), Rockville, MD. Div. of Manpower and Training Programs.
Authoring Institution: Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta, GA.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: For related documents see CG 014 377-378 and CG 014 380-381.