The field's evaluation of proposed clinical indicators for social work services in the acute care hospital.

Evolving approaches to quality assurance emphasize ongoing measurement and uniformity of data collection across settings. To meet new requirements, a work group established by the National Association of Social Workers and the Society for Hospital Social Work Directors of the American Hospital Association is developing clinical indicators for monitoring and evaluating the quality of social work services in the acute care medical hospital. The work group sought systematic feedback from practitioners in the field to evaluate and further refine the work to date. In a mail survey, a random sample of the Society for Hospital Social Work Directors' membership was asked to evaluate nine proposed indicators along four dimensions: (1) clarity, (2) relevance for practice, (3) meaningfulness in relation to quality of care, and (4) feasibility of implementation. Results of the survey indicated high levels of favorability for six of the nine indicators, suggesting their utility as a uniform data set for further empirical validation efforts. Uncertainty about the feasibility of specific indicators was widespread.