It’s never too early to start work on the 2013 quality measures, which is exactly what the federal health IT panel is doing.
The meaningful use criteria for stage 1 are surely finalized now and ready for release. Improving healthcare quality outcomes is obviously a big goal of the health IT adoption programs, especially the incentive program. While we don’t know what the focus of the measures will be, we do know they will be progressively more complex and sophisticated with each stage.
The federal health IT panel will rely on several sources to form the list of quality measures. The National Quality Forum is an obvious source of authority. NQF is also looking at quality measures at nine prestigious, leading-edge healthcare systems.
The work being done by the Beacon Communities will be a valuable resource as well. A total of 17 communities will be focusing on specific clinical outcomes to improve. Note that these communities, as well as the nine healthcare systems, are advanced in their health IT adoption, which might inform later stage quality measures.
Where else might quality measures come and what other respected healthcare organizations? Fortunately, there are many. The Leapfrog Group comes to mind. Their hospital survey has become the national standard for hospital performance comparison in the areas of safety, quality and efficiency. Then there’s the National Association for Healthcare Quality, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Joint Commission.
There’s no dearth of resources. The real challenge will be narrowing down the measures that are meaningful and achievable. What measures would your healthcare organization focus on to create the biggest impact on improving quality? Share your thoughts.
Photo by ivva obtained via Creative Commons license.
