HACC reviews 2011
AHA was engaged previously by ACT Health to conduct the first (in 2004) and second (in 2009) round quality appraisals of HACC providers against the HACC National Service Standards. The first round of appraisals included 31 HACC funded agencies and the second round included 30 HACC funded agencies. Due to the successful conduct of these previous appraisals, AHA has again been engaged by ACT Health to conduct quality reviews of 32 HACC providers against the new Community Care Common Standards (CCCS).
The CCCS have been developed to assist in ensuring high quality service delivery to consumers in community care. They apply to the Home and Community Care Program (HACC); Packaged Care Programs including Community Aged Care Package (CACP), Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH), Extended Aged Care at Home – Dementia (EACHD) and the National Respite for Carers Program (NRCP) and replace the following standards:
- The Home and Community Care National Service Standards (1995)
- Community Care Standards
- EACH Standards
- NRCP Service Standards (2005).
Where HACC providers also receive Packaged Care and/or the National Respite for Carers Program funding, AHA will endeavour to conduct joint reviews with the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) so that agencies will only need to undertake a review against the CCCS once in a three year period.
This project is similar to the previous reviews in the ACT, as well as HACC assessments previously conducted in both Victoria and Tasmania. The review process will include the following key elements:
- Training agency staff in relation to the standards and the review process
- Self assessment by service provider
- Desk review by AHA
- Site visit and development of Quality Improvement Plan. The service visits involved working closely with the agency, reviewing evidence sources, and consulting with staff
- Consulting with service users via a survey (available in other community languages)
- Assistance, guidance and encouragement for service providers in embracing continuous quality improvement.
Training for all service providers was conducted on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th July 2011. Agency reviews were conducted between August and October 2011.