Quality Forum Committees Meet, Reach Agreements
March 1, 2002 - The Safe Practices Steering Committee
and the Hospital Quality Measures Steering Committee of the
National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting
met on Feb. 21 and 26, respectively. The Safe Practices Committee's
mission is to guide the Forum's work on developing a compendium
of evidence-based safe practices for all health care settings
that can serve as a guide for all health care stakeholders
to recognize, implement, and support practices which improve
the quality of care. The Hospital Measures Committee continued
to develop an initial set of quality performance measures
for the nation's acute care hospitals and a framework to review
new measures and update the initial set. Both projects stem
from the federal Quality Interagency Task Force (QuIC) February
2000 report to the President on patient safety initiatives
in the federal government.
The Safe Practices Committee had already reached agreement
on some safe practices. At the February meeting they reviewed
and made decisions about remaining safe practices. They also
discussed the organization of the report, which will contain
the list of safe practices. During the discussion on organizing
the list it was noted that very few practices that were selected
were actually "new" (i.e., developing a process
to verify the correct site of surgery). Many practices on
the list are known but are underutilized (i.e., hand washing
before and after patient contact). Forum staff will develop
a final draft compendium that will be available for public
comment around March 8. The Forum's goal is to have members
vote on the compendium by May 15 and release it in late September
or early October.
The Hospital Measures Committee agreed on the clinical areas
to focus on in the initial measure set: pneumonia, maternal/neonatal
care, patient safety, congestive heart failure, acute coronary
syndrome and acute myocardial syndrome. At the recent meeting
committee members reviewed and made decisions about what measures
in these areas should be part of the initial measure set.
The Steering Committee agreed to keep patient safety measures
and state in the report that this area overlaps with the Forum's
Safe Practices Project, which provides a comprehensive analysis
of this issue. The Forum's goal is to have this project, which
is jointly sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS), completed by early this fall.
Information:
Jeff Patyk, Staff Specialist
AAMC Health Care Affairs
jpatyk@aamc.org
(202) 828-0498
Get Washington Highlights
in your Inbox!
|
