Measuring the Quality of Hospital‐based Domestic Violence Programs

Abstract

Objective: To obtain consensus among a panel of experts on performance measures useful for evaluating the quality of hospital‐based domestic violence (DV) programs. Methods: The Delphi process of consensus development was used with a panel of 18 experts including DV researchers, program planners, and advocates. Three rounds were conducted over a period of six months, with each round involving the completion of a written questionnaire. Panelists were instructed to concentrate on structure and process measures of DV program performance. Health outcome measures were not considered. During each round, panelists rated (scale of 1‐5) their level of agreement with each measure, in terms of the measure's usefulness for evaluating hospital‐based DV programs. Data were entered into SPSS on a personal computer and frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and variance were computed for each measure. Consensus development was defined as a reduction in the item‐specific variance from one round to the next. Results: A total of 37 performance measures were agreed upon. These measures fell within nine different domains of DV program activities, including: Policies and Procedures, Hospital Physical Environment, Hospital Cultural Environment, Training of Providers, Screening and Safety Assessment, Documentation, Intervention Services, Evaluation Activities, and Collaboration. Conclusions: A number of measures have been identified as useful for evaluating hospital‐based DV programs. Use of these measures should assist researchers, program planners, and administrators in assessing the quality of hospital‐based DV programs.