A new National Quality Forum (NQF) task force will ask dozens of top experts and healthcare leaders to identify actionable opportunities to achieve better health outcomes and value throughout the delivery system.
In partnership with Kaiser Permanente, Geisinger, the Aetna Foundation, Intermountain Healthcare, the American Hospital Association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, GlaxoSmithKline, and HCA Healthcare, the task force will make recommendations aimed at normalizing high-value, person-centered care throughout the United States by 2030.
In a press release, NQF noted that it was founded 20 years ago out of a confluence of circumstances – several high visibility medical errors, research findings, publications, roundtables, and a Presidential Commission, among other things – all bringing national attention to safety and quality concerns in the U.S. healthcare system and launching a national movement to establish safe, high-quality care.
Over the last two decades, the country has made improvements, demonstrating that healthcare quality can be improved through concerted efforts and systematic planning, measurement, and process re-design, the organization noted. However, despite the progress, significant work remains to arrive at the point that every person in every community can expect to consistently and predictably receive high-quality healthcare. Additionally, concern is growing that the nation is becoming less aligned in efforts to arrive at this end-goal.
“As healthcare leaders, we must maintain an unrelenting focus on identifying and driving cultural and system changes necessary to normalize the provision of high-quality care for every person, every time, everywhere. We must make today’s exemplars the norm,” said Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., a co-chair of the task force, in a prepared statement. Kizer was founding president and CEO of the NQF in 1999, and director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement in the University of California Davis Health System.
The task force will kick off in April to develop recommendations by the end of this year.
