Office of Nursing

Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement

• Introduction
• History
• Progress
  • 1997 - 2001
  • 2004 - 2005
  • 2006 - 2007
  • 2008
  • Currently

Meshell McCloud: mymccloud@dhr.state.ga.us
website: http://health.state.ga.us/programs/nursing
phone: 404-657-6642 | fax: 404-463-0377

Progress 1997 - 2001

In 1997, the first model of QA was developed but was rejected. In 1998, the second model, Quality Assurance for Public Health Nursing Practice under Nurse Protocol, was developed. In January 1999, a pilot of the new QA/QI initiative was conducted at the Bibb County Health Department. The QA/QI initiative began with the development of standards and tools for measurement of quality and opportunities for improvement. A quality assurance site visit team was formed to include representatives from state offices, districts and counties. The team conducted a two-day site visit to at least one location within each district between January 1999 and December 2000. All site visits were conducted according to schedule, except for Fulton County, which had to be rescheduled to a later date due to Hurricane Floyd which struck September 15, 1999. The site visit methodologies included review of written documentation, staff interviews, peer review, direct observations of clinical practice, and an exit conference.

In June 2000, a survey was distributed to each state office program to identify the QA/QI activities by each program and the extent to which those activities meshed with the Division’s QA/QI initiative. The 2000 survey showed that most programs conducted their respective QA/QI activities separately and apart from the Division’s QA/QI initiative. The Child Health, STD, SHAPP, TB and Immunizations programs have been coordinating some or most of their QA/QI activities with the Divisions’ initiative, while other programs continue their QA/QI activities separate from the statewide effort. The districts have expressed alarm and frustration about the lack of effort to coordinate all QA/QI activities and consider this a major obstacle to providing an efficient and effective system of accountability. Development of the QA/QI initiative needs to identify the barriers that are keeping programs from merging their QA/QI activities with the Division’s statewide initiative and to recommend action steps to eliminate those barriers.

In 2001, the QA/QI team focused on reviewing the results of the site visits by the QA/QI team and refining the standards and measurement tools for future site visits. The QA/QI standards and measurement tools were revised to incorporate the recommendations and feedback from the districts and counties and were expanded to include such components as leadership, customer service, cultural competency and population health.

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