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Experts agree that the U.S. health care system’s performance must improve substantially to consistently produce the best possible health outcomes.
Simply put, health care quality is getting the right care to the right patient at the right time — every time.
One of the greatest barriers to improving patient safety and quality care is that the information needed to track patient safety is not available.
Only 25 of 41 safety measures in the full NHQR measure set have data available for tracking recent trends.
The ultimate public policy goal is to increase value for America’s health care consumers and the system as a whole to:
- Ensure the highest quality of care delivered in the most efficient manner possible to significantly improve treatment of chronic disease;
- Research the effectiveness of comparative treatments; pay for quality care, not quantity of care;
- Restructure the medical liability process to provide relief for patients, clinicians and providers;
- Encourage public reporting of performance of individual clinicians and providers;
- Establish infrastructure for health information technology; and
- Create payment reforms to change the current health care delivery system.
Leaders throughout the country came together to identify specific ideas for reform concerning, among other things, patient safety and quality care. Here are their ideas:
- Address barriers to investing in quality improvement;
- Develop infrastructure to close gaps in quality and outcomes;
- Expand reliable data sources to build an evidence base for quality care; and
- Align incentives to promote patient-centered care including innovative delivery models, including but not limited to, the patient-centered medical home model.