Quality Oversight by the Governing Body

• The governing body is responsible for the quality of care provided by the organization.

• The governing body needs to be aware of key quality and safety principles in order to effectively oversee the quality performance of the organization.

• Quality performance indicators need to be directly linked to strategic goals and objectives and balanced across a number of priority areas.

• The governing body can demonstrate a clear commitment to quality when it is a standing agenda item at each meeting.

• Often the governing body overestimates the quality performance of the organization, so discussions need to be supported with indicator data and feedback from clients and families.

• A small number of easily understood performance indicators that measure quality at the system level (‘big-dot’ indicators) such as number of clients who died or were harmed by patient safety incidents, quality of worklife, number of complaints, and client experience results will help answer the question “are the services we provide getting better?”

• Quality performance indicators need to be directly linked to strategic goals and objectives and balanced across a number of priority areas.

• The governing body can use information about the quality performance of the organization to make resource allocation decisions and set priorities and expectations.

Test your knowledge on the governing body's responsibility for quality care, key quality and safety principles, and the use of performance indicators to oversee organizational quality performance.