Issues and Challenges in
Quality Assessment for Children
Challenges in Quality Assessment for Children
- Children tend to be healthy (low incidence and prevalence of disease).
- Majority of care is preventive.
- Long-term outcomes are difficult to assess.
- Limited research base—most quality measures research has focused on adults.
- Confidentiality issues and using parents as proxy respondents.
Issues in Quality Measurement That States Need to
Address Early in Implementation
- Data sets. What data sets will be utilized? Are data systems already
set up to work collaboratively? This will be particularly important for States
implementing a SCHIP program that is not part of the existing Medicaid system.
- Data definition. Clarify common definitions with providers and health
care organizations (e.g., what is defined as "a mental health encounter"?).
- Performance measurement tools. Use existing tools. Fill in the gaps as
needed in existing tools instead of spending valuable resources creating entirely new
ones.
- Information systems. Recognize that all programs are dependent on
information systems and that if these systems are not up to speed it will be difficult if
not impossible to generate any data.
Quality Assessment
- Helps screen out bad providers.
- Encourages improvement among all providers.
- Demonstrates effects of program changes or variations.
States need to implement quality measurement systems now, given that:
- It is easier to plan new programs and new systems together.
- Quality models and indicators are already available (e.g., HEDIS).
- The ability to compare ‘before’ and ‘after’ is essential.
Related
Questions
Give me an overall
context
Show me other SCHIP
Workshop presenter-suggested strategies
Tell me some known or potential
problems
What led to this?
Who presented this material?
|
Monitoring/Eval. 
