Quality Care
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected - Steve Jobs

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HWN Suggests
Health Care's Current Definition of Quality Is Wrong: Operational vs. Outcomes
Why does the U. S. continue to perform poorly in access, efficiency, affordability, equity of care and quality of care compared to other advanced countries around the world? Could they be measuring the wrong parameters?
"The health care industry is making some great changes -- particularly noteworthy is the attempt at creating tangible ways of measuring the quality of care. Part of this is driven by the pay-for-performance mandate as directed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The other part is due to industry changes: Consumers are becoming more empowered, care providers are becoming more transparent, and options are widening for individuals.…
Resources
Quality Care As a Driver for Health System Change
Quality measurement in health care has always been difficult and expensive. In my 30 years in medicine, the focus has been geared more towards measuring outcomes from an acute care perspective rather than quality from the point of view of the individual. For example, documenting hemoglobin A1C levels or body mass index scores may measure clinical quality, yet these markers reveal little about a person's daily living needs and how decisions about their care are made.
What Measures Should Be Used to Evaluate Health Care
There’s little agreement among patients, providers and insurers.
Are CMS’s Quality Measures Helping or Hurting?
What CMS found is that, overall, while the results in some areas are concerning, healthcare is measurably improving, and not just services provided by Medicare. Patient populations not covered by Medicare are benefiting as the quality tide rises.
CMS Sepsis Measures Spark Controversy
New federal reporting requirements for treating hospitalized sepsis patients are drawing both praise and criticism from physicians who treat the condition.
Imaging Centers: Useful or Harmful?
Imaging centers have proliferated in the past decade. You would think that the potential to develop cancer years or decades after an imaging procedure would ensure that imaging centers are as safe as possible. Think again!
Is Obamacare Punishing Hospitals The Wrong Way?
A new study finds flaws in Medicare's effort to reduce hospital readmissions.
Medical Errors: Are We in Safe Hands?
Medical mistakes happen. Medical professionals are only humans who can err. One gets to wonder how many medical misadventures go unreported!
Medical Spas - Are They Really Medical?
Spas and clinics are reinventing themselves...clinics are becoming more spa like whereas spas are becoming more medical like...welcome to the medical spa, popular but at the same time controversial.
Prescription Drugs - Who's Minding The Store?
The most common adverse drug reactions are the effects from the drug itself - a virtual double-edged sword! Don't rely solely on the regulatory drug approval agencies, the adverse drug reactions reporting bodies or the watchdogs. Always pay attention to the drug inserts, if you can read them, and not just the TV commercials.
The Affordable Care Act at Age Five: Quality of Care
To sum up, these supposed "fixes" to improve quality in our market-based system , quite predictably, fail to result in acceptable levels of quality. The U. S. continues to fare poorly in quality, access, efficiency, affordability and equity of care compared to other advanced countries around the world.
The Core Quality Measures Collaborative
This Collaborative challenges all members of the health care community to join in our commitment to quality “measures that matter,” within the framework of the 3Rs — Reduce, Refine, and Relate. This effort represents a historic level of collaboration on quality measure alignment which should benefit the whole health system. This work is essential to improve health and health care and enable a shift towards a health care system of improved outcomes and higher value.
The Problem with Healthcare Core Measures
As absurd as it sounds, this is what medicine has been reduced to now. Forget about common sense and clinical judgment. In another shining example of the law of unintended consequences, what began as a well-meaning policy has lost all sense of logic.
We are Complicit – A glimpse into the current state of Severe Sepsis/Septic Shock Quality Measures
I spent the afternoon wading through the proposed CMS sepsis measure. Anyone who has any experience with national quality measures understands just how painful a way this is to waste a few hours. Here is the issue...
When It Comes To Health Care, There Are 2 Americas, And These Maps Are Proof
When it comes to things like health care access, quality and cost, certain states can be as much as eight times better than others, the report found.
You Get What You Pay for: a Look at Transitioning From Volume to Value
If the U.S. auto industry ran like the country's health care system, all American cars would cost in excess of $100,000, resemble Rube Goldberg machines and break down more than any other cars in the world.
Health Care's Current Definition of Quality Is Wrong: Operational vs. Outcomes
While I applaud the industry for attempting to create metrics to evaluate care, as a physician I'm disappointed so far. Someone anonymously once said, "convenience sacrifices quality," and I believe this sums up the health care industry's efforts to date.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used.
CMS.gov
Quality health care is a high priority for the President, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS implements quality initiatives to assure quality health care for Medicare Beneficiaries through accountability and public disclosure. CMS uses quality measures in its various quality initiatives that include quality improvement, pay for reporting, and public reporting.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
HIMSS is a global, cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on better health through information technology (IT). HIMSS leads efforts to optimize health engagements and care outcomes using information technology.
National Quality Forum
NQF is committed to helping our nation achieve better and affordable care, and improving the overall health of Americans.
The Commonwealth Fund
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.
Truven Health Analytics
Truven Health Analytics has been a leader for more than 40 years in delivering unbiased information, analytic tools, benchmarks, services, and related expertise to the healthcare industry. We collaborate with customers to uncover and realize opportunities for improving quality, efficiency, and outcomes.

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