Quality Improvement

The Stanford Sierra Youth & Families’ Quality Improvement (QI) Department provides compliance oversight and evaluates outcomes across all programs of the organization. Through audits and evaluation, QI upholds principles of accountability and innovation in documentation standards and best practices of serving children and their families. The department also has direct oversight of clinical practice training and program practice improvement in order to ensure our services actually make a real and tangible change in behavior. We don’t try to help; we make sure we help.

We Evaluate

• Program outcomes – Are young people better when they complete their program?
• Satisfaction of each youth and their family – Did they get what they expected and needed?
• Implementation of programs – Did we follow the model and meet program goals?

We Provide

In order to know that a program is making a positive impact on the lives of youth and families, we need evidence in the form of objective data and documentation. We also need critical thinkers who are experts at organizing and evaluating the thousands of pieces of data our direct care staff are documenting for each of the families they work with. The QI team is made up of people who specialize in just that. 

We Report

Each day QI works to ensure that every service that is provided to youth and families is properly documented and shared with the contractors and funders. We also use that documentation to answer the question, “Are our services improving the lives of the youth and families we serve?” If the data indicates that a service is not as effective as it could be, we make recommendations and work side-by-side with programs to help them implement plans for improving the quality of their practices. 

What Makes Us Unique

Our dynamic Quality Improvement (QI) department collaborates with agency programs to support development and growth and also develops systems to promote successful productivity. QI identifies opportunities to fulfill the values of the organization, with an emphasis on innovation. In addition, QI anticipates organizational needs to ensure seamless service and is an excellent resource for all staff.

Our Success

QI’s success is measured by the feedback from our organization and our county partners. We uphold county and state compliance regulations and set up our organization’s staff for success by providing them with training and oversight on documentation standards. QI also adheres to our commitment to deliver meaningful program data internally to the organization and externally to our partners, which includes outcomes supporting recognition and improvement.