title: The development of a statewide continuous evaluation system for the Texas Children's Mental Health Plan: a total quality management approach.
abstract: The article presents a description of processes involved in developing and implementing a statewide continuous evaluation system for the Texas Children's Mental Health Plan (TCMHP) and quality management tools used to approach implementation challenges. Implementation issues are discussed relating to stakeholder involvement, evaluation design evolution, measurement method modification, evaluation integration, staff training, data quality control, communication of results, and use of results in decision making. A review of implementation processes suggests evaluation design and activities should be seen as constantly evolving in response to ongoing stakeholder input. Involving stakeholders in design and implementation can result in increased data quality, data-informed decision making to improve service delivery, and increased public accountability. The TCMHP evaluation system development demonstrates that quality management tools can provide a useful framework to work through design and implementation problems, and a continuous evaluation system can provide an infrastructure for meeting data needs in a managed care environment.
authors.affiliation: Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, Austin 78711-2668, USA.
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Rouse
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Toprac
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: MacCabe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010934:Planning Techniques; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000592:standards; D012107:Research Design; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013781:Texas; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*