Welcome to the National Quality Forum

Tell us What You Think: Comment and Vote!

NQF-endorsed voluntary consensus standards are widely viewed as the gold standard for measurement of healthcare quality. Votes and comments from our varied and diverse membership are what make NQF endorsement the gold standard. The following projects are now open for comment:

• National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: 2009 Update
• NQF Common Formats Comment Period

The following projects are open for member voting

• National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Outcomes and Efficiency
• National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Outpatient Imaging Efficiency

To see open calls for nominations and other information, visit the Members Only section of the website.

(Not a member? Become one today!)

CLINICIAN-LEVEL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING

A new Issue Brief from the NQF examines current efforts to more broadly define relevant and measurable elements of condition-specific care and related accountability. This Issue Brief builds on a workshop on clinician-level measurement convened by NQF in March 2008 and coincides with NQF’s recent endorsement of 67 new clinician-level consensus standards. More information on these new standards can be found here.

NQF Board President William Roper testified before the Senate Finance Committee in the hearing it held on “Improving Health Care Quality: An Integral Step Toward Health Reform.”

“Indeed, the overarching objective of health reform must be to ensure that every American, regardless of race, ethnicity, place of residence and SES, receives timely access to health care that is safe, effective and affordable. Expanded access to care becomes almost irrelevant if in the end we’re getting care that is poor quality.”

NATIONAL PRIORITIES PARTNERSHIP

The National Priorities Partnership is 28 organizations that wield extraordinary influence over the “cogs and wheels” that drive our healthcare system. We will transform healthcare from the inside out – where it has the best chance to succeed.

FIND OUT about the partner organizations

READ more on what we’ve done to date

NQF MEASURE EVALUATION

The NQF board of directors approved an update to the criteria used for evaluating measures being considered for endorsement as voluntary consensus standards.

CLOSING DISPARITIES GAP

Innovations in performance measurement and public reporting are closing the healthcare quality disparities gap. A new Issue Brief from the National Quality Forum, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, highlights public and private initiatives underway at the national, regional, and local levels to measure performance and more effectively target interventions that reduce disparities.

NQF ENDORSES HIT STANDARDS

NQF has endorsed nine new structural measures for health information technology in electronic prescribing, electronic health record interoperability, care management, quality registries and the medical home. These measures are intended to help providers assess the efficiency and standardization of current HIT systems and identify areas where additional HIT tools can be used.

2008 National Policy Conference: Quality at the Crossroads

Healthcare quality is at a crossroads. How will a new president shape the path our nation takes?
The National Quality Forum is uniquely positioned to coalesce the players in the field to ensure we are heading in the same direction—toward real change in America’s healthcare quality. NQF’s National Policy Conference will address both the political and policy issues facing health care quality. Don’t you want to be at the table?
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