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Health Care Quality Organizations

Professional Recognition for Health Care Quality

Health Care Quality Organizations

The Puget Sound Health Alliance is not alone in its effort to improve health care quality and affordability. There are many outstanding organizations involved in this work throughout the country.

Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q)

Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in 17 targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities and provide models for national reform. AF4Q asks the people who get care, give care and pay for care to work together toward common, fundamental objectives to lead to better care. The Puget Sound Health Alliance became an AF4Q Community in 2006.

Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AHRQ) 
Professional performance measurement is the emphasis of this Purchaser-Plan-Consumer-Government venture. Areas of focus include both quality and cost-of-care (efficiency) measure sets for professional services. Results planned to be part of a physician pay-for-performance program. Notable involvement by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) and a number of national specialty societies.

Bridges to Excellence
This purchaser-plan national venture emphasizes ambulatory care for diabetes, cardiac and self-care. Physicians play a role in program design, which awards bonuses to high-performing group practices.

ConsumerHealthRatings.com

ConsumerHealthRatings.com provides a free, comprehensive listing of organizations that rate or report performance on specific hospitals, health plans, physicians, nursing homes, home health agencies and other health care providers in the United States.

Foundation for Health Care Quality

Originally founded in 1988 to provide an independent review of a Community Health Information Management System, the Seattle-based Foundation for Health Care Quality has led dozens of evaluations ranging from use of comparison quality standards by consumers to supporting public health agencies in the surveillance of sudden health risks.

Leapfrog Group
Quality of care in the hospital is the emphasis of this Purchaser-Plan-Consumer venture. Areas of focus include (1) computerized physician order entry, (2) evidence-based referral, (3) hospital-based intensivists, and (4) patient safety. Bonuses awarded to high-performing hospitals.

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
Professional quality of care is the emphasis of this Purchaser-Plan-Consumer-Government venture. Areas of focus include cardiac care and diabetes. Results used to recognize providers and health plans.

National Quality Forum (NQF)
A variety of performance measurement domains is of interest to this Purchaser-Consumer-Government venture. Areas of focus include heart surgery, diabetes, patient safety, nursing home care, and patient care experience. NQF is increasingly seen as the entity which must vet performance measures before they may be widely deployed.

Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI)
Professional performance measurement is the emphasis of this AMA-launched venture, with considerable involvement of national specialty societies. Areas of focus include physician-designed quality measures and various practice work flow-related indicators.

Qualis Health

Qualis is a private, nonprofit organization based in Seattle, where it has operated since its founding in 1974.  Under a contract to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Qualis Health serves as the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for Idaho and Washington.

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