NQF's Hospital Measures Steering
Committee Finalizes Measure Set, Begins Framework Discussion
June 21, 2002- The Hospital Performance Measures Steering
Committee of the National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement
and Reporting met on June 14 to continue its work on developing
an initial set of quality performance measures for the nation's
acute care hospitals. The project stems from the Quality Interagency
Task Force's (QuIC) February 2000 report to the President
on patient safety initiatives in the federal government. The
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are jointly
sponsoring the project. At the meeting the committee finalized
the initial measure set and began discussing the framework
for updating the measures.
Prior to the meeting, the Forum released a draft copy of
the hospital measures report for member and public comment.
In their comments, several individuals proposed including
additional measures in the measure set; however, because of
the scope of the comments and number of measures, the steering
committee agreed to limit the meeting discussion to the measures
that were previously considered and narrowly eliminated. The
steering committee agreed to ask the Forum's Board of Directors
for additional time to discuss the other measures raised in
the comments.
The proposed framework is based on the Forum's aims for the
health care system. The aims include efficiency, safety, benefit,
and timeliness. The proposed framework groups individuals
according to common health care needs (e.g., all patients,
single diagnosis, critically ill). It also addresses sites
of care, vulnerable populations, treatment process, and condition
areas. The principles behind the proposed framework are:
- Everyone should find at least one sub-population to which
they apply;
- Cross cutting areas should be prioritized; and
- Not every measure needs to be applicable to all hospitals,
but at least some measures should apply to all hospitals.
The proposed framework will undergo additional refinement
by the steering committee and Forum staff.
Information:
Jeff Patyk, Staff Specialist
AAMC Health Care Affairs
jpatyk@aamc.org
(202) 828-0498
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