The ultimate aim of all health and community services is to deliver high quality, appropriate care and support to clients. Standards and guidelines that are devised to aid healthcare professionals in delivering quality service are more effective when the performance of service providers is independently reviewed.
AHA is recognised as a leader in independent quality assessment and improvement. Over the last ten years we have conducted approximately 2000 appraisals of service providers against quality standards. Over this time we have engaged and retained a team of highly experienced assessors, who have an unmatched wealth of practical experience.
Our projects for governments demonstrate our:
- Extensive experience and comprehensive knowledge of all relevant quality frameworks in Australia.
- Expertise in developing, trialling and implementing quality standards, frameworks and tools on behalf of government
- Vast experience in managing and conducting major quality assessment programs for Australian and state/territory governments, over many years
- Expertise providing quality training and educating for service providers and government personnel.
A feature of much of our work is our ability to successfully engage and encourage service providers to embrace quality as a practical and valuable part of their ongoing operations. Our approach to conducting quality assessments is that it should be a positive and beneficial experience for most service providers.
A recent survey of the agencies assessed by AHA indicates that the vast majority (92%) viewed the assessment program positively. Similarly, 87% believed that they obtained excellent or good benefits from their assessment. This is regarded as an outstanding outcome for a quality assessment program and demonstrates the benefits of AHA’s collaborative approach.
Our assessment programs are a consultative and professional review of documentation, organisational systems, quality of care and compliance with quality guidelines. Our reviews recognise the importance of having qualified, well trained staff to deliver care to clients and good management and coordination which are supported by effective systems.
Our methodology is based on the accumulative experience gained from previous and current reviews of family and children’s services, community nursing, residential aged care, HACC services, disability services and services for Aboriginal people. We are aware of the realities of providing services, the outcomes of improving service quality and the consequences when providers fall below minimum standards. At all stages of our reviews, we provide responsive and highly practical support, advice and compliance assessment to service providers, as well as close liaison roles with government departments and peak bodies.
Quality assessment programs undertaken for governments include:
- Approximately 900 HACC service providers in the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania, over two rounds of assessments. Following the first round of assessments from 2003 to 2004, AHA was reappointed by each jurisdiction to conduct their second round assessments from 2007 to 2009. These reappointments, separately by each jurisdiction, demonstrate the quality of our work.
- Over 700 Community Nursing and Personal Care providers nationally, funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), over six years
- Organisations funded by FaHCSIA under the Family Relationships Services Program, across Australia. By 2010 AHA will have assessed over 150 funded organisations nationally.
- AHA was recently appointed by DHS to conduct quality assurance reviews against the Community Service Organisation (CSO) Registration Standards, for approximately 50 Community CSOs in Victoria, including providers of community based and residential services.
Projects to develop, pilot and implement quality standards, frameworks and tools, include