ABSTRACT
Introduction: This study examined the perspectives of quality surveyors employed by the local government regarding the quality evaluation of agencies for visiting nurses.Methods: The participants were six surveyors. We carried out semi-structured interviews concerning the quality of agencies for visiting nurses. We conducted a qualitative analysis and derived several categories inductively.Results: The surveyors found little difference in the quality between for-profit and non-profit agencies for visiting nurses. In addition, they considered the following characteristics to represent good quality agencies: "availability of home-visit nursing 24 hours per day", "information disclosure and maintenance of quality records", and "the nurse manager understands and promotes an integrated community care system".Conclusion: Eleven categories were identified for the qualitative evaluation of agencies for visiting nurses. The present findings may be used useful for maintaining the quality of agencies for visiting nurses.