For over 12 years, the Florida Department of Elder Affairs (DOEA) has conducted statewide surveys to evaluate the satisfaction of clients with program services, the quality of care from direct service workers, and the impact of programs administered by DOEA on clients’ lives.
The current Client Satisfaction Survey was developed by the Department specifically to assess the programs for which DOEA has oversight. It was based in part on the Department’s work on the Performance Outcomes Measures Project (POMP) funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL)/Administration on Aging (AoA). POMP developed, field-tested, and validated a core set of performance measures for state and community programs. DOEA participated in POMP in partnership with other POMP grantee states, expert consultants at Westat, and ACL/AoA.
The Client Satisfaction Survey used by the Department’s Bureau of Planning and Evaluation has been implemented annually since 2010 and contains 14 questions which assess the
Service Delivery:
- Service Quality,
- Overall satisfaction with services,
- Frequency of service visits,
- Length of service visits,
- Time of day of service visits, and
- Day(s) of the week service visits are conducted.
Direct Service Workers:
- Worker knowledge and skills,
- Worker treatment,
- Worker communication,
- Worker punctuality, and
- Worker continuity.
Service Impact:
- Meeting client needs,
- Helping maintain or improve clients’ lives, and
- Helping clients stay in their homes.
Depending on the purpose of the survey, the Department randomly samples clients, typically at the state level, but also at the Planning and Service Area (PSA) or program level. The samples are of sufficient size to assure a 90 percent confidence level for the representativeness of results. Professional interviewers in the DOEA Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) Call Center call clients to administer the survey. Calls are made until the target number of surveys (typically between 250 and 300) has been completed. In some cases, surveys are mailed to clients as well.
