The Disabilities Board of Charleston County has an active and innovative quality assurance program, focusing on continual improvement in services and insuring the safe and responsible functioning of each program area.  The Quality Assurance office is responsible for assisting each program area in its internal QA efforts, collecting the results of internal quality key indicators, examining trends in the key indicators, and making recommendations for quality improvement to each program area.  The office of quality assurance also tracks data trends in the “Dashboard Indicators” identified by DDSN, including consumer accidents and injuries, critical incidents, abuse allegations, use of psychotropic medications, external licensing and compliance surveys, and on-call reports.

Key components of the Quality Assurance program are the Quality Assurance Committee, comprised of program representatives of all service areas in DBCC, and the consumer advocacy program.  DBCC’s consumer advocate facilitates the consumer focus group and the consumer review panel and develops training opportunities related to consumer rights and disability awareness.

Community citizens interested in supporting the DBCC’s quality assurance efforts can contact the Director of Quality Assurance, Laura Villeponteaux, at 805-5800 X420, or through e-mail at lvilleponteaux@dsncc.com.  There are numerous opportunities to serve on facility and program review panels and committees.  Any concerns about possibly inappropriate consumer treatment can be called in to our Consumer Concern Line, 1-888-601-DBCC, 24 hours a day.