Internet Resources
Provided below is an assortment of links to quality focused organizations. A brief paragraph from the site's website is included below the link to provide some background information.
If there are other sites you feel belong on these pages please e-mail jbowman@facs.org.
Quality Focused Organizations
AMA Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2946.html
http://finance.senate.gov/hearings/testimony/2005test/nntest072705at2.pdf
The Consortium's mission is to improve patient health and safety by: identifying and developing evidence-based clinical performance measures that enhance quality of patient care and that foster accountability; promoting the implementation of effective and relevant clinical performance improvement activities; and advancing the science of clinical performance measurement and improvement.
The Consortium's vision is to fulfill the responsibility of physicians to patient care, public health, and safety by: becoming the leading source organization for evidence-based clinical performance measures and outcomes reporting tools for physicians; and ensuring that all components of the medical profession have a leadership role in all national forums seeking to evaluate the quality of patient care.
Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance
http://www.ambulatoryqualityalliance.org/
In September 2004, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), joined together to lead a collaborative effort for determining, under the most expedient timeframe, how to most effectively and efficiently improve performance measurement, data aggregation, and reporting in the ambulatory care setting.
The mission of this effort – named the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AQA) – is to: improve health care quality and patient safety through a collaborative process in which key stakeholders agree on a strategy for measuring performance at the physician level; collect and aggregate data in the least burdensome way; and report meaningful information to consumers, physicians, and other stakeholders to inform choices and improve outcomes.
Institute for Health Care Improvement
http://www.ihi.org/ihi
IHI is a reliable source of energy, knowledge, and support for a never-ending campaign to improve health care worldwide. The Institute helps accelerate change in health care by cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care and turning those ideas into action.
National Quality Forum
http://www.qualityforum.org/
The National Quality Forum is a private, not-for-profit membership organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting.
The mission of the NQF is to improve American health care through endorsement of consensus-based national standards for measurement and public reporting of health care performance data that provide meaningful information about whether care is safe, timely, beneficial, patient-centered, equitable, and efficient.
Agency for Health Care Research and Quality: Patient Safety and Quality
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/aqastart.htm
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/aqaback.htm
This page contains information that fall under the following topic areas: Health Information Technology, National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™, Consumer Assessment of Health Plans®, Measuring Health care Quality, Medical Errors & Patient Safety, WebM&M: Morbidity & Mortality Rounds, Quality Indicators, Quality Information & Improvement, and Talking Quality. This is a comprehensive government resource.
Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine
http://www.iqlm.org/
The Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine is dedicated to advancing health care through the improved use of laboratory tests and services.
Online June 15, 2011