Quality Assurance Policies and Indicators for Long-Term Care in the European Union

Résumé 0

Quality assurance policies for long-term care in France are founded on a law passed in 2002, butthe organisation of the system is still underway. It is principally based on a legal framework thatsets out requirements for quality monitoring and quality improvement. Quality assessment isrelated to outcomes, indicators and guidelines. It pertains to formal care and is related toadministrative authorisation and financial conditions. In the public sector, the aim is to developcontinuous quality assurance in a system differentiated by internal and external qualityassessment. In the private sector, the aim is mainly to check conformity with quality standards,as internal and external quality assurance may be replaced by a certification procedure. Acentral agency is in charge of enhancing quality through the production of new guidelines butquality supervision is the role of the funding institution and qualitative results are not publiclyavailable. To date, not many organisations or units have conducted the entire quality assuranceprocess, as the quality of long-term care is ensured by an institutional system that is in the finalstages of being structured.