NQF
THE NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM
Achieving National Quality Measurement and Reporting
Helen Burstin, MD, MPH Senior Vice President, Performance Measures National Quality Forum
Policy Roundtable Academy Health 2007
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NQF Mission
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To improve the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.
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What is the NQF?
The National Quality Forum is a private, non-profit voluntary consensus standardssetting organization.
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National Technology and Transfer Advancement of Act of 1995 (NTTAA) Defines the five key attributes of a “voluntary consensus standards-setting body” (i.e., openness, balance of interest, due process, consensus, and an appeals process) Obligates federal government to adopt voluntary consensus standards (when the government is adopting standards) Encourages federal government to participate in setting voluntary consensus standards
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Quality Measurement & Reporting: Problems
No national goal setting process Not enough measures; too many measures Too much process, not enough outcomes Numerous methodologic issues Competency vs high performance measures
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Where are we with quality measures?
Measure Development
NCQA
National Committee On Quality Assurance
PCPI
Physician’s Consortium For Performance Improvement
CMS, Other Efforts
National Quality Forum Measure Endorsement
AQA
Measure Approval for Implementation
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Health Care Leadership Activated
Quality Alliances: HQA, AQA, APQ, PQA… AMA Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement 30+ Specialty Societies ANA National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI)
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NQF
THE NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM
Quality Dashboard
Cost of Care Measures Quality measures
Efficiency Measures
Patient Experience With Care
payroll
Accounts payable
RVU’s scheduling
M.O.C
Private Sector Measures
CMS PVRP
credentialing
Accounts receivable
Courtesy of Kevin Weiss, MD
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National Quality Measurement & Reporting Infrastructure
Critically need to:
Set priorities and goals Develop and maintain measures Endorse “Best in Class” measures Data aggregation Public reporting
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Quality Measurement & Reporting: Issues
Linked process and outcome measures Episodes of Care (e.g., efficiency, cost, and value) Measurement gaps (e.g., patient engagement, care coordination, and self-management) Methodologic issues (e.g., attribution, exclusions) Mode of measurement (transition to EHRs?)
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Quality Measurement & Reporting: Health IT
Need greater dialogue between the quality and the health IT communities. Need to specify the EHR data elements needed to produce quality measures (focus on quality of data elements and workflow). Need to consider how interoperable systems begin to get us towards high impact gap areas (e.g., transitions, coordination of care)
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Quality Measurement & Reporting: Disparities
Measures of healthcare disparities are essentially quality measures. Disparities in health should not be a marginal or special interest issue. Need to determine which measures should be routinely examined for disparities.
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1000 people
800 have symptoms
New Ecology of Medical Care
327 consider seeking medical care
217 visit a physician’s office
(113 to PCP) 65 visit CAM provider
21 visit a hospital OPD 14 receive home health 13 visit an ED
8 in a hospital
<1 in an academic health center
NEJM 2000, Green et al
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Quality Measurement & Reporting: Population Health
Need to consider how we begin to measure the health of a population (align with emerging measures of public health quality) Need to increase linkages between healthcare and public health systems Interconnected health IT systems should allow for tracking of quality by population
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NQF
THE NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM
Questions/inquiries:
hburstin@qualityforum.org
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