History and Introduction
Two years ago, three national organizations representing the hospital field stepped forward to announce a landmark public-private partnership to create a shared national strategy to provide hospital performance information to the public using a common set of measures.
The three organizations were:
· American Hospital Association (AHA)
· Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
· Federation of American Hospitals (FAH)
Joining them later were:
· U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
· Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
· Agency for Health care Research and Quality (AHRQ)
· Joint Commission on Accreditation (JCAHO)
· National Quality Forum (NQF)
· American Medical Association (AMA)
· Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project
· AARP
· AFL-CIO
· National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI)
Goals of the Quality Initiative:
· Give the public useful, valid, and easily accessible information about hospital quality
· Foster efforts by hospitals and physicians to improve quality while easing duplicative and burdensome hospital reporting requirements
· Begin to standardize data collection priorities and mechanisms
· Give hospitals a sense of predictability about public reporting expectations
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