The effectiveness of resource allocation methods used by RWCA Title II consortia in Virginia

The authors sought to determine the following: (1) How rigorous are the cur rent resource allocation methods wed by Virginia's five regional Ryan White CARE (Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency) Act Title II consortia? (2) How useful are existing databases in allocating resources? (3) Is it feasib le to introduce a standardised performance measurement approach for state-l evel assessment of consortia effectiveness The authors reviewed proposals and progress reports from each of the consor tia to the Virginia public health agency; they then visited each of the con sortia to solicit information to refine the study questions and to review t he consortia's databases. The authors reviewed the literature on existing m odels used to allocate resources, and surveyed members of the Virginia cons ortia about how they used various resource allocation tools, how effective these tools were, and how ready the consortia were to be evaluated regardin g resource allocation. The authors found no uniform process for the allocation of Title II funds i n Virginia. Consortia members who felt connected and involved with their co nsortium were significantly more knowledgeable about its operations and mor e likely to consider it effective. A consortium's we of a continuous qualit y improvement (CRI) approach to allocating resources was strongly associate d with its members' perception that the consortium was effective. Statewide performance and/or outcome measures cannot be set without some st andardized expectations for performance. To do this, some expectations for basic resource allocation procedures must be established. Three of Virginia 's five consortia will make use of this study's instrumentation in their ne xt resource allocation processes, and, if their experiences are useful, a s tatewide process may be established. If a statewide process is established, regional consortia must continue to be able to determine local needs and t o respond with locally appropriate service planning.