| Assessment |
Participating ALCs assess their quality improvement structure, processes, and outcomes by self-reporting quarterly data and their residents’ quality of life and satisfaction by administering annual surveys.
To complete the assessment, designated reporters in each ALC respond to a quarterly survey about quality improvement, including questions about structure (eg, staffing levels), process (eg, quality improvement activities), and outcome (eg, number of falls with injury). Additionally, ALCs administer an annual survey to their residents (eg, 28 items organized in 7 sections such as Staff, Environment, Health Management/Care), and answered on a 5-point Likert scale or “Not Applicable.”
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| Feedback |
Written and graphical reports are provided to ALCs and their sponsors.
Reports are available on demand and are updated each quarter with ALC data and annually with the data collected from resident surveys. ALCs and sponsors can customize the reports to include or exclude ALCs based on comparison filters such as care type, number of beds, and primary population served. Elements of the quarterly reports include bar graphs, box plots, trend reports, and tables, and like the annual satisfaction reports, they compare each ALC to all ALCs with the same sponsor and to all ALCs in the collaborative.
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| Support |
Using the quality improvement information provided in the feedback stage, sponsor organizations provide targeted support to ALCs including coaching, networking, education, tools, and resources.
The sponsors’ quality improvement programs provide ALCs with informational materials, training, and assistance to support their internal quality improvement efforts. Sponsor support may target ALC level to improve ALC structures, processes, and outcomes. An example is a workshop aimed at improving falls prevention programs. Sponsor support may also target resident satisfaction. An example of a resident-focused support intervention is inviting a national speaker to an annual conference to present best practices on meals and dining following low scores on that portion on the resident satisfaction survey. In addition to sponsor support, ALCs also receive support from the collaborative overall (eg free access to the Clinical Resource Center website (crc.wisc.edu), including AMDA best practice guidelines).
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| Adaptation |
Building on the targeted support and the customized data reports, ALCs can take a data-driven approach to beginning or adjusting quality improvement efforts within their organization.
ALCs can directly target suboptimal processes with improvement efforts. An example is an ALC continuously reducing its falls with injury by adapting its falls prevention programs based on trends and comparison reports along with coaching from its sponsor.
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