CALA Quality Assurance & Improvement Flashcards
6 cards from real CALA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 CALA Quality Assurance & Improvement flashcards as text
What does 'person-centered care' mean in the context of assisted living quality improvement?
Answer: Care tailored to the individual resident's preferences, values, goals, and needs, with the resident as an active partner in decisions
Person-centered care places the individual resident's preferences, values, and goals at the center of all care decisions, treating residents as active partners rather than passive recipients of care.
Which committee or team is typically responsible for overseeing the QAPI program in an assisted living facility?
Answer: A multidisciplinary quality improvement committee that includes leadership, clinical staff, and other stakeholders
A multidisciplinary quality committee—including administrators, clinical leaders, frontline staff, and ideally resident or family representation—provides oversight of the QAPI program.
What is the difference between quality assurance (QA) and quality improvement (QI) in assisted living?
Answer: QA focuses on meeting minimum standards and identifying deficiencies; QI focuses on continuously improving beyond minimum standards
QA is traditionally reactive, focused on identifying and correcting deficiencies to meet minimum standards, while QI is proactive, continuously seeking to improve performance beyond minimum compliance thresholds.
An assisted living facility has a high rate of unplanned hospitalizations. What is the best first step in a quality improvement response?
Answer: Collect and analyze data to identify the most common diagnoses and circumstances leading to hospitalizations
The first step is to collect and analyze data on hospitalization causes, timing, and circumstances to identify patterns that can be addressed with targeted interventions.
What role does staff education play in an assisted living quality improvement program?
Answer: It is an ongoing mechanism for translating quality improvement findings into improved practice across all staff
Ongoing staff education translates quality improvement insights—such as new evidence-based practices or lessons learned from adverse events—into consistent daily practice across all staff and shifts.
Which approach best supports a 'culture of safety' in an assisted living facility?
Answer: Encouraging transparent reporting of errors and near-misses without fear of punishment, using events as learning opportunities
A culture of safety encourages staff to report errors and near-misses without fear of punishment, treating these events as opportunities to identify and fix system failures rather than to blame individuals.