national quality forum health it and patient safety measures report

National Quality Forum Report on Health IT Challenges In March, The National Quality Forum (NQF) issued a 96-page report which identified several areas of improvement necessary to patient safety and health IT (HIT) along with multiple recommendations.

Full Answer

What are NQF's recommendations for patient safety?

In June 2012, NQF endorsed 14 patient safety measures with a focus on complications, addressing a range of quality concerns, including medication safety, venous thromboembolism, surgical safety, and care coordination.

What are NQF's quality measures on perinatal care?

In April 2012, NQF endorsed 14 quality measures on perinatal care. The measures address a wide range of care concerns, including childbirth, pregnancy and post-partum care, and newborn care.

How do I find NQF measures?

NQF has what your organization needs to better measure, report on, and take action to improve healthcare quality. Looking for measures? Check out QPS, NQF's measure search tool that helps you find the endorsed measures you need quickly and easily. Search by measure title or number, as well as by condition, care setting, or measure steward.

What is the safety and care coordination task force family of measures?

The Safety and Care Coordination Task Force have developed a "family" of aligned measures that includes available measures and measure gaps that span programs, care settings, and levels of analysis related to patient safety and care coordination. This family of measures addresses cost of care as related to these topics.

When was the intent to call for patient safety-related measures issued?

An intent to call for patient safety-related measures was issued on November 23, 2009, the responses to which will help determine the expertise required for the Steering Committee and related technical panels. A full Call for Measures and a Call for Nominations for Steering Committee members was issued on January 4, 2009.

When was the NQF call for measures issued?

A full Call for Measures and a Call for Nominations for Steering Committee members was issued on January 4, 2009. Through the Call for Measures, NQF will solicit safety measures to fill gap areas and to address environment-specific issues with highest potential leverage for improvement.

What is the NQF consensus?

Candidate practices and measures will be considered for NQF endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards. Agreement will be developed through NQF’s Consensus Development Process (CDP, version 1.8). This project will involve the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders and will be guided by a steering committee.

When did the NQF call for intent close?

NQF issued a Call for Intent to submit candidate standards for Patient Safety Measures. Notices of intent closed on December 7, 2009. For additional information, see the full Call for Intent document. View Instructions. Call for Nominations.

Why is NQF reporting important?

NQF has published a number of reports to encourage providers to adopt best practices and eliminate serious reportable events (SREs). State based reporting has also been enacted in 26 states and the District of Columbia to help providers identify and learn from serious reportable events.

Who won the Patient Safety and Quality Award?

We can only improve what we can measure and report on. No one knows this better than our John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award winners. Their efforts inspire us and others to become champions of patient safety and improvement.

What is the NQF mission?

NQF’s mission is to improve the quality of healthcare. Patient safety is central to achieving our mission. We know that reducing harm and preventable medical errors saves lives and lowers healthcare costs, a goal shared by everyone that touches the healthcare system.

Is NQF a public benefit corporation?

NQF incorporated as a public benefit corporation based on impetus provided by the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry ( Quality First: Better Health Care for All Americans. Final Report to the President of the United States. 1998)

What are the health-IT related safety concerns found in incident reports and claims data?

The numerous health-IT related safety concerns found in incident reports and claims data are remarkably diverse . A survey of members of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and the American Health Lawyer’s Association revealed eight similarly broad issues demanding attention in no particular priority order:(22)

What is the evidence on health IT safety and interventions?

This Report of the Evidence on Health IT Safety and Interventions is intended to summarize recent evidence in this rapidly expanding field, to identify areas where research is needed, and to encourage the development or refinement of existing tools or interventions to enhance the safety and increase the safe use of health IT. This report has been constructed with a view that, in the event stakeholders find sufficient value in this report, it could serve as the foundation of a series of evidence summaries that update its findings regularly or that delve more deeply into specific areas than is feasible in this initial, broad survey.

What is the most common system-related factor in all adverse events?

Communication breakdowns are the most common system-related factor in all adverse events, and EHR systems are rapidly replacing face-to-face communication as the default way health care providers exchange information and discuss problems and plans. How well EHRs function in enabling communication is a critical safety concern.

What is the Joint Commission's first patient safety goal?

Providing care to the wrong patient is a longstanding concern in patient safety, prompted The Joint Commission’s very first Patient Safety Goal: “Improve the safety of patient identification.” Recently, better ways to measure the incidence of the problem have been identified, and research has begun to clarify why these errors happen and how they can be prevented.

What is alert fatigue?

Since the 2011 IOM report, additional studies have reported problems in the usability and effectiveness of CDS, particularly concerning alert fatigue and overrides.(82-92) Alert fatigue occurs when a provider, after receiving too many alerts or reminders (some or many of which may be irrelevant to that provider), overrides or ignores further alerts without attending to them , which can decrease the care improvements expected from the tools and pose patient safety risks.

What is interoperability in healthcare?

Interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged.( 44) Growing evidence shows that interoperable health information exchange (HIE) has value to stakeholders and can improve care quality, efficiency, and safety by improving the timeliness and completeness of important patient health information such as medical test results, medications, diagnoses, preventive care measures, and allergies.(45-50) Improving interoperability has been identified as one of the top health IT safety priorities.(51-53)

What is usability in EHR?

The International Standards Organization (ISO) defines usability as “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use .”(23) Others define usability in more granular ways for EHRs, specifying multiple design principles that result in more usable systems.(24, 25)