Over the years, Adelante has strived to provide the highest quality services to our program participants and our business customers. The agency has received numerous awards since its opening and earned accreditation in the field of disabilities from two different accrediting agencies. We continue to focus on quality and are proud to say that Adelante was one of the first nonprofits in the country to achieve ISO 9001:2008.

Adelante has a Quality Manual that specifies the various ways we meet quality requirements for ISO and key customers such as our accrediting and/or regulatory bodies. We also have in place a Document Control System that assigns ownership of policies, procedures, documents, reports, and forms to specific agency staff. This helps Adelante to ensure that only the most current version of each document is in use at all times. Forms and procedures are published on our online network so everyone in the agency has access to them.

Occurrences System (our Corrective Action system)

In an effort to maintain the highest level of quality in our services, Adelante employs an Occurrences System which helps us find and correct and problems in a quick fashion. The system records key information on audit findings, safety infractions, investigations, and process failures. It allows the agency to recognize achievements and when there is a problem, correct it.

The occurrences system assigns responsible parties who must complete a root cause analysis, define needed actions, ensure action completion, and gather evidence of completed actions. The system generates a manager's report for monitoring progress by responsible staff, and a Corrective Actions report to give to auditors. Executive Team members periodically review the status of response to audit/investigation findings and related requests to ensure we are meeting specified timelines.

Blueprint Planning

Adelante also uses a planning process called Blue Print. It is a vehicle for annual planning to track staff activity across all programs and positions relevant to the accomplishment of the mission and vision of the agency. The Blue Print requires monthly progress reporting by every individual, and managers can view status notes for all their direct reports right in the system.

Staff cross-checks at various levels throughout the organization identify compliance issues and offer the opportunity for corrective action as part of agency business. Examples of this are: Service Coordinators review client files monthly to ensure they are complete and accurate; program managers observe meals to determine whether clients' Meal Time Plans are being followed to note and correct any errors; Vehicle Inspections are performed daily by drivers, as well as monthly and semi-annually by Facilities staff to detect problems and to ensure daily inspections are serving their purpose to a satisfactory degree.

ISO

ISO 9001 is a series of Quality Management Standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization. The system has been used traditionally in the manufacturing arena, but its quality standards can be applied to any business, including service companies. The ISO Series of Standards has become the most widely recognized quality benchmark in business, primarily due to the reported gains in efficiency, effectiveness, and operational improvements companies receive when they adopt and implement these guidelines.

Many of the quality systems needed for Adelante to be recognized as compliant with ISO standards were already in place, but the process of becoming ISO-ized provided an outside assessment and helped the agency to standardize procedures like creating forms, handling training records, and managing our fleet of vans. Adelante’s goal, in implementing ISO protocols, was to ensure that the agency continues to have an environment where corrective actions are addressed immediately and where there will be continuous improvements in service and customer satisfaction. In the long-term support business, it is especially important that we provide consistent quality in every program for every participant. After a lot of hard work we officially achieved ISO 9001:2000 in October 2002 for delivery of Day Habilitation Services and Community Living Programs and for the administrative support services in Albuquerque and Belen.

Adelante recognizes that quality – providing the best possible services and having certifications to back up that claim – will also be the key to the continued growth of our Enterprises. Once the agency was ISO compliant, we began applying the ISO principles and procedures to our affirmative businesses. Facilities Support Services, our janitorial and maintenance business, was the first to begin the ISO process and earned ISO 9001 in April 2003. In 2004, Adelante Document Destruction Services achieved ISO. Adelante is proud of this internationally-recognized achievement and looks forward to earning registration of all of our Enterprises.

Quality Systems Manager

Because the quality of our services is very important to Adelante and the people we support, Adelante employs a Quality Systems Manager. This manager’s duties include:

• Coordinating responses to findings from internal and external audits, investigations, and related inquiries

• Managing quality processes and systems for the agency, including document control, corrective action planning, and scorecard reporting

• Assisting departments with process improvement activities

• Leading rollout of quality systems (such as Occurrences System and Project Management)

• Assuring user training and ongoing support for technology initiatives (e.g., Occurrences System, Project Management, Outlook/Exchange)

• Adelante will continue to work toward different benchmarks of success and look for ways to improve services, supports, and procedures. Adelante remains committed to a tradition of ensuring a high level of quality as the agency grows.