title: Assuring & improving the quality of in-home services.
abstract: Long-term care represents the interface between health care and social services and thus includes a multitude of services and staff that deliver long-term assistance. The range of services, consumers, and environmental circumstances under the home care umbrella creates a considerable challenge for both providers and regulators. This article examines five principles to assure high-quality care: Know your customers, listen to your customers, collect good information for decision-making, understand that the group is smarter than the individual, and realize that sub-optimization is a critical challenge facing organizations.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Applebaum
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003625:Data Collection; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D014481:United States