A description and extension of a human services management model

A simple and yet powerful method for increasing the quantity and quality of service outcomes in organizations that provide such services for persons with developmental disabilities involves systematic and regular review of individual consumer related activity occurrences and outcome summaries at the middle and senior management levels (Williams & Cummings, 2001). Once established, and with some level of inter-observer agreement, this practice has been shown to result in significant increases in the amount and effectiveness of direct service related activities while simultaneously establishing an organizational level baseline measure against which almost any management, supervisory, or staff training intervention can be evaluated. This paper describes two further applications of this general procedure in a large midwestern community service provider. One application increased accuracy of service related documentation procedures and actual services and outcomes in six community ICF/MR residential facilities. The second application in a multi-disciplinary team produced increases in services and outcomes across residential and day programs. These results extend previous reported effects of service review and are discussed in this light with a delineation of further needed research.