Abstract (EN)

Quality assurance policies for long-term care in France are founded on a law passed in 2002, but the organisation of the system is still underway. It is principally based on a legal framework that sets out requirements for quality monitoring and quality improvement. Quality assessment is related to outcomes, indicators and guidelines. It pertains to formal care and is related to administrative authorisation and financial conditions. In the public sector, the aim is to develop continuous quality assurance in a system differentiated by internal and external quality assessment. In the private sector, the aim is mainly to check conformity with quality standards, as internal and external quality assurance may be replaced by a certification procedure. A central agency is in charge of enhancing quality through the production of new guidelines but quality supervision is the role of the funding institution and qualitative results are not publicly available. To date, not many organisations or units have conducted the entire quality assurance process, as the quality of long-term care is ensured by an institutional system that is in the final stages of being structured.