Assuring quality care: measuring and monitoring the caring process

Everyone interested in the quality of the human services agrees that it should be largely determined by the interaction between the client and their caregivers. Unfortunately, this exchange has proven to be very difficult to measure in an accurate and timely manner. The resulting uncertainty has prevented smooth adaptation of the caring process to client needs; it has also made it virtually impossible for managers to devise workable quality control systems. This paper describes the use of miniaturized barcode technology for collection of real-time data at the point of care. With the addition of laptop computers, this technology provides for immediate feedback of information to address quality issues in care planning and management. The data bases produced by this system are sources of documentation for quality assurance as well as a dynamic foundation for quality control.