Assessing the quality of health promotion and patient education programs

Quality assessment for health promotion and patient education programs helps ensure that these services are efficient and effective, and represent professional standards of practice. It also helps ensure that they are beneficial, accessible, and acceptable to members. Three program characteristics should be considered in defining the objectives of an assessment--the degree of existing knowledge regarding the effectiveness of the program, the degree of risk posed by the program, and the cost of the program. A menu of objective is presented, including assessment of the structure of the program; comparison of the program with state-of-the-art models; assessment of program implementation and coverage; measurement of member/patient response; evaluation of program outcome; and evaluation of cost-effectiveness, opportunity costs, and broad benefits to the organization. Major methods for assessment and evaluation are discussed briefly in relationship to the objectives they address--review of professional staff performance; comparison with models, standards, and other criteria; documentation and management information systems; focus groups and other small-scale qualitative methods; participation in plan monitoring and quality assurance activities; and controlled evaluation studies.