Quality of Long-Term Care

Quality in long-term care requires three steps: (1) defining quality of care; (2) assessing care and services to determine whether quality standards are being met; and (3) correcting quality problems when they are identified. Quality questions in long-term care go beyond the traditional safety and protection issues that have historically dominated the field of tong-term care; policy-makers and regulators are concerned with determining if public monies are paying for effective services that result in better health or improved functioning for the consumer.