Licensing, quality of care and the surveillance process

As part of the evaluation of an experimental programme of surveillance of institutions for the semi-independent and frail elderly using the regulation, assessment, follow-up (RAF) method, an examination was made of the licensing status, quality of care, and completeness of the surveillance process. Included in the examination were 126 institutions which underwent the surveillance process between 1990 and 1993. Aims to investigate whether the RAF method of surveillance was being implemented in a professional and uniform manner. Concludes that surveyor's recommendations to grant or not grant a licence were usually based on findings about the quality of care. Nevertheless, in order to reinforce the relationship between licensing and quality of care, it was suggested that surveyors be given clear criteria of quality on which to base their recommendations regarding conditional licensing. It was found that the surveillance process is indeed implemented uniformly in long-term care institutions of varying quality.