Abstract
Introduction: The growing number of older people and the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases highlight the need for the integration between social and health services. To ensure high quality home care, common and consistent standards are essential. Our aim is to develop a validated accreditation tool for home care.
Description: An integrated home care accreditation tool was developed including 26 standards and 144 items divided into six domains: Organization&Governance, Patient Safety&Risk Management, Professionals knowledge, Skills&Competences, Information&Communication, Care Integration, and Improvement&Innovation. Expert evaluation was conducted between August and November 2019; relevance and feasibility (RF) and expert agreement were analyzed.
Discussion: A total of 21 experts participated in the validation process, with a response rate of 53%. A good RF score and agreement were obtained for 70% of the items and 65% of the standards. The best scores were obtained forIndividualized care project(RF 8.4, agreement 100%),Integrated care pathways(RF 7.5, agreement 81%),Access to the integrated health and social care system(RF 8.1, agreement 86%), andMultidimensional assessment of needs(RF 8.1, agreement 86%).
Conclusion: The existence of an integrated health and social care accreditation tool would help to improve the quality of home care, and make patients’ quality of life better and safer.