Member
Profile
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member profiles)
Stephanie
Nicholson-Hassett, Director of Quality Improvement, Children's Home Association
of Illinois
-Primary services provided
-Accredited? By Whom?
-How long has your organization had dedicated QI/QA staff?
-How is your QI/QA function organized? Reporting Structure, Staff, Teams, Responsibilities, etc.
-Describe your process or plans to measure outcomes, compare to benchmarks, etc.
-Describe your data collection system in relation to QI/QA
-What memberships and/or resources have you found to be valuable in your work (books, organizations, people, tools, etc.)
-What do you enjoy most about working in the QI/QA field?
-How has the Quality Leader's Network been of value to you?
Size of your organization (total staff, total revenue)
$16 million dollar budget with approx 450 staff
Primary
services provided
Residential, Foster Care, Day Treatment, In Home Services, Homeless youth
services
Accredited?
By Whom?
Accredited by COA
How
long has your organization had dedicated QI/QA staff?
QI staff since 1990
How
is your QI/QA function organized? Reporting Structure, Staff, Teams,
Responsibilities, etc.
QI Department reports to COO and includes outcomes, research and
training. The QI Director job responsibilities include:
- Develops, maintains and utilizes sound working knowledge of all program standards, (Medicaid, COA, ISBE)
- Uses client information system to provide information for management purposes at all levels within the agency
- Collaborates with program staff on quality principles and the value of meeting and exceeding quality standards
- Supervises the Quality Improvement staff
Describe
your process or plans to measure outcomes, compare to benchmarks, etc.
We adhere to the CQI process for identifying outcomes that do not meet set
benchmarks and CQI teams develop new ways of testing or tracking based on data
collection.
Describe
your data collection system in relation to QI/QA
Data collection system is TIER (totally integrated electronic record) which is a
customizable client information system that tracks clients, their progress and
outcomes.
What
memberships and/or resources (books, organizations, people, tools, etc.)
have you found to be valuable in your work
Resources valuable include COA standards and national consultant,
Fotena Zirps.
What
do you enjoy most about working in the QI/QA field?I enjoy most that things are always changing and there are always new ways to do things and innovative ways to look at things.
How
has the Quality Leaders Network been of value to you?
I think the Quality Leaders Network is a good resource for our entire department.
