National Quality Forum (NQF)

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan, membership-based organization that works to catalyze improvements in healthcare. Specifically, NQF:

• Convenes working groups to foster quality improvement in both public- and private-sectors;
• Endorses consensus standards for performance measurement;
• Ensures that consistent, high-quality performance information is publicly available; and
• Seeks real time feedback to ensure measures are meaningful and accurate.

NQF endorsement is the gold standard for healthcare quality. NQF-endorsed measures are evidence-based and valid, and in tandem with the delivery of care and payment reform, they help:

• Make patient care safer;
• Improve maternity care;
• Achieve better health outcomes;
• Strengthen chronic care management; and
• Hold down healthcare costs. New directions are further strengthening how we engage with the healthcare community to drive quality improvements.

Above all, NQF is a forum, and we are listening and making improvements that respond to the needs of our healthcare partners, while simultaneously making sure membership is a meaningful experience. The focus of NQF's work includes:

• Getting to better measures faster;
• Making the current review and endorsement process for measures more flexible to meet changing needs;
• Helping make sense of quality measurement and improvement reports for patients, families, and policymakers; and
• Convening diverse stakeholders to spur action, innovation, and improvement.