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| Measuring What You Do |
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Just like building a house, measuring what you do at your treatment agency begins with a set of plans. In business planning this is usually your mission statement and your written goals, objectives and action plans. Because our organizations are always changing, planning is on a continuing basis. Frequent measurement, analysis and reporting become the keys to successful business operations.
Your first yardstick is your Annual Plan. Your plan and its written goals, objectives and action plans should always be a work in progress and involve the people you serve, your staff and the community. Your mission statement defines what your organization is all about. Your goals, objectives and action plans give more specific direction to how your mission statement is to be accomplished. When done, this process becomes your Annual Plan.
The second measurement is a Community Needs Assessment, which evaluates your strength, weakness, opportunities and challenges in relation to the persons you serve or could be serving in your community. Your target audience could include clients, referral sources, vendors and other interested groups. Specific tools could include surveys, focus groups, planning reports and community profiles. Information could include information on persons ineligible for services, utilization of services and follow-up data.
Professional review of the quality, appropriateness and utilization of the services provided is your third measurement. This normally includes a review of your charting process, including assessments, service goals and objectives, actual services received and progress toward meeting treatment goals. When completed on a monthly basis, the result and your response become a part of your Annual Plan.
Program effectiveness is the fourth part of your measuring system and answers the question "Are we doing what we say we are doing?" Measuring effectiveness begins with defining what expectations exist for the persons served and the services provided. Global measures of effectiveness include quality of life, symptomatology, functional status and health status.
More specific indicators that are applied to chemical dependency might include maintenance of abstinence, reintegration into the community, reduction of incidence of relapse, decrease in negative involvement with the criminal justice system, improvement of physical health, improvement of ability to function, and movement to another level of care. Effectiveness measures are typically gathered at admission (a baseline), at some point during treatment and after discharge.
"Are we providing services as efficiently as possible?" is answered by measuring program efficiency. Efficiency includes access, use, appropriateness and cost of services. Measuring efficiency might include the answers as to how well the telephones being answered, are services provided based on individual client treatment plan goals and are clients goals being assessed to ensure adequate progress?
The sixth piece to your system is customer satisfaction. This helps us answer the question: "How well are we doing." Satisfaction is not a measurement of popularity, but an important indicator of client perception about their experiences at your agency. Indicators of satisfaction might include ease of making financial arrangements, respect of staff, being included in treatment planning and clear explanation of discharge instructions.
Gathering the information, analyzing and reporting on your performance can be time consuming. Automating many of the tasks or combining them with other functions can help. In addition to meeting requirements of some funders or accreditation bodies, a properly designed system that tracks your performance will pay benefits in consistent growth, increased census, and more involved personnel.
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About The Author:
Landon L. Kimbrough has developed and implemented program evaluation systems for both outpatient and inpatient treatment providers in Washington. He is President of Lanstat Incorporated. http://www.lanstat.com Mr. Kimbrough is a recognized expert in technical assistance in designing and implementing corrective action plans and writing policies and procedures to assist chemical dependency agencies in maintaining state certification, including new agency start-up and application for approval. |
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