The availability of quality home care and alternate site services received by clients is a primary concern for the client and his or her family. Quality and cost are now the major concerns for those referring patients to providers and those paying for services. Although a provider may actually meet these two challenges, referral sources, networks and payers in particular may ask for something more.
Accreditation is one means to ensure provider professionalism.
Standard-setting by industry leaders and assessment performed by peers through accreditation has become a widely accepted method of ensuring professionalism. Other means such as state licensure or credentialing also bear much merit in establishing standards for quality measurements which focuse on protecting the consumer and directing providers to higher levels of performance. These mechanisms help providers measure policies, processes and performance at a given point in time. It is up to the provider to stay focused and keep operations and services in step with regulatory requirements and stay quality driven. Movements within the industry suggest that many efforts to establish benchmarks to raise service in home care and purge the industry of providers that would, otherwise, hurt the reputation of the industry and cause consumer injustice will continue.