National Priorities Partnership Aligns and Accelerates Performance Measurement and Improvement

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Quality Forum (NQF) delivered a call to action to its members and leaders at every level to focus on achieving the National Priorities Partnership's blueprint for world-class, affordable healthcare.

NQF is the convening member of the National Priorities Partnership - an unusually diverse coalition of 28 major national organizations representing those who receive, pay for, deliver and evaluate healthcare. The Partnership today unveiled the most comprehensive agenda of its kind to transform healthcare during a time of severe economic strain by cutting waste and better investing resources to fundamentally improve care.

The NQF Board of Directors unanimously endorsed the set of six cross-cutting priorities - patient and family engagement, population health, safety, care coordination, palliative and end-of-life care, and overuse.

"NQF revised and expanded its mission to include the convening of the Partnership because we believe that a collective effort such as this will be crucial to the success of future healthcare reform efforts," said William Roper, chair of the NQF Board of Directors. "The Partnership is about transforming healthcare from the inside out."

"The Priorities allow us to focus our collective efforts around areas that have the greatest potential for substantial improvements," said Janet Corrigan, NQF president and CEO. "But setting the priorities is just the first step. The harder part is still to come - taking real actions, even if they are difficult, to achieve the ambitious goals set by the Partnership. NQF has begun work as an organization to align around the Priorities, and I am proud that so many individual NQF member organizations are already aligning their activities around the Priorities and identifying ways in which they can act to achieve the Goals."

Collectively, NQF members have made significant contributions to rethinking the way care is coordinated across providers and settings, with the anticipation that "care coordination" would be one of the Priorities. NQF recently initiated a consensus project that will help to improve the coordination of healthcare through endorsed practices and performance measures that encourage shared accountability across providers and systems.

NQF - widely viewed as setting the "gold standard" for measurement of healthcare quality - has also worked to identify gaps in its portfolio where additional measures are needed to gauge progress in achieving the ambitious goals. Within the next year, NQF plans to conduct additional consensus projects to address measurement gaps, will consider existing measures for endorsement and stimulate measure development in areas where they are needed. Through endorsement and harmonization activities, NQF can help to align the measurement systems used to assess progress toward achieving the Priorities and Goals.

NQF's role in the National Priorities Partnership is a natural evolution of its work to endorse standards for measurement and public reporting with the aim of raising performance expectations across the healthcare spectrum.

"The National Quality Forum is proud to be both a member of the Partnership and the convener of this effort," said Dr. Corrigan. "We have not forgotten that 'quality' is our middle name, and we believe working together to achieve the Priorities is the right path toward truly improving the quality of America's healthcare."

To read the report: http://www.nationalprioritiespartnership.org

NQF MEMBERS REACT TO THE NATIONAL PRIORITIES...

Nancy H. Nielsen, president, American Medical Association: "The American Medical Association is committed to improving the quality of health care for patients, and we are pleased to support the vision of the National Priorities Partnership. Working together, we can make real progress toward our goal of health system reform so that patients have access to the quality care they need."

Andrew Webber, president and CEO of National Business Coalition on Health and chair of NQF's Provider Council: "Having a clear set of priorities and goals and with corresponding performance measures is a vital, primary step in transforming the quality of health care. We applaud the National Priorities Partners for this groundbreaking accomplishment. We will inform our 61 businesses and health coalitions and encourage them to take actions to contribute to the attainment of national goals."

Maureen P. Corry, executive director of Childbirth Connection and vice chair of NQF's Consumer Council: "Healthcare consumers and advocates applaud the aims and priorities identified by the National Priorities Partners and their commitment to immediate, concerted national action. We are especially pleased with the emphasis on engaging patients and their families in managing their health and making informed decisions about their care and are confident that childbearing families and others who receive health care in the United States will soon benefit from this bold plan. We look forward to collaborating with Consumer Council member organizations and others to improve performance in priority areas."

Curt Selquist, company group chairman (ret), Johnson+Johnson and chair of NQF's Leadership Network: "This is an extraordinary opportunity for suppliers and industry to collaborate with all stakeholders in healthcare to achieve significant improvements in the quality of healthcare for the Nation."

Linda Stierle, CEO of the American Nurses Association: "We understand that any meaningful change needs to include everyone -- from insurers to employers, doctors and nurses, to consumers. The National Priorities Partnership is based on that sense of collaboration, and that's why it's the most viable movement for change to date."

Lou Diamond, medical director of the healthcare business of Thomson Reuters and chair of NQF's Quality Measurement, Research and Improvement Council: "The NQF convened NPP recommendations provides for a framework and guidance to facilitate action at a local level. A focus on both the quality and the financial dimensions are important. The call for and commitment to individual and collective action by the NPP member organizations has the potential of galvanizing support for adopting the priorities as a roadmap, as we tackle the quality gaps and cost escalations we are faced with. This project is a campaign and not simply a list."

Paul Convery, senior vice president and chief medical officer for the Baylor Health Care System and chair of NQF's Provider Council: "Baylor Health Care System, like other hospitals and health systems across the country, wants to deliver the best and most effective care to our patients every day. The work of the NPP is important because it outlines a credible set of priorities and goals that we can all work with to guide our efforts in providing the best in health care for all."

Linda Burnes Bolton, Cedars-Sinai Health System and Research and former president of the American Academy of Nursing: "The National Priorities and Goals represent a significant step on our collective journey to achieve and sustain a system of care that benefits all people. I am hopeful that working together nurses, physicians, patients and other health professionals will use these goals to drive our work to cross the quality chasm that exists in America today."

David R. Gifford, director of health at the Rhode Island Department of Health chair of NQF's Public/Community Health Agencies Council: "The NPP priorities and goals focus on the core issues that will significantly help States improve the health of our residents, streamline our healthcare system and reduce healthcare costs. They provided a great blueprint to leverage significant change in the Nation's health, change that is needed even more given the difficult economic times for states and the nation."

Dave Domann, Ortho-McNeil Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., and chair of NQF's Supplier/Industry Council: "The National Quality Forum's role as a convener of the National Priorities Partnership provides an opportunity for NQF to help shape the future of healthcare. NQF Councils have the opportunity to collaborate with other healthcare leaders to support the implementation and achievement of national priority goals."

Joyce Dubow, senior advisor, AARP Office of Policy and Strategy and chair of NQF's Consensus Standards Approval Committee: "The set of well-thought-out national priorities and goals recommended by some of the most influential, national health care stakeholders will be invaluable as we consider how to achieve meaningful health care reform that puts quality improvement and the needs of patients front and center. These goals and priorities will certainly help to inform the thinking of National Quality Forum members as we consider quality measures that can best advance public accountability and improved care."

The mission of the National Quality Forum is 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. NQF, a non-profit organization (http://www.qualityforum.org) with diverse stakeholders across the public and private health sectors, was established in 1999 and is based in Washington, DC.

SOURCE National Quality Forum