Abstract
Developing and ensuring the quality of its products and services has become an imperative task for any organisation’s management. This understanding first developed in industrial settings, rather than in health and social services, where the traditional approach has been to consider quality assurance as an intrinsic part of professional ethics (Evers et al., 1997). With the increasingly market-oriented provision of health and social services, however, different stakeholders have driven forward an agenda towards the development of methods to systematically describe and improve performance of personal services, first in the area of health care and, latterly, in social and long-term care (LTC) organisations (Blonski, 1999). Public purchasers of services started to question what kind of product they were funding (‘value for money’) and how to regulate market access for different types of providers. Providers, in turn, had to verify their performance in a more transparent way to satisfy accreditation guidelines and tender specifications in a progressively competitive environment. Service providers have also viewed quality management as a way to improve organisational effectiveness in the delivery of care. Further imperatives came from inspectorates, which were established to monitor the quality and safety of the care delivery process to assure a basic level of quality. Finally, service users have voiced changing expectations concerning the quality of care.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Kai Leichsenring, Henk Nies and Roelf van der Veen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Leichsenring, K., Nies, H., van der Veen, R. (2013). The Quest for Quality in Long-Term Care. In: Leichsenring, K., Billings, J., Nies, H. (eds) Long-Term Care in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137032348_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137032348_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44108-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-03234-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)