A Comprehensive Framework for Hospital Care Performance Evaluation

Publication Date: May 2003

Publisher: The National Quality Forum; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Author(s): The National Quality Forum

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

The United States spends $450 billion per year on hospital care, but there is very little public information available on hospital quality. Recent efforts to expand quality measurement and reporting have increased, but this raises concerns related to the burden of measurement and the need for standardization to allow for reliable comparisons among hospitals. The National Quality Forum convened a panel of health care stakeholders to create consensus recommendations for a comprehensive framework for hospital performance measurement and reporting.

The purpose of the panel was to articulate guiding principles for standardized quality measurement and reporting for hospitals, regulators and other stakeholders. The report presents governing recommendations for hospital care performance measurement and reporting in six areas:

1. Establishing the performance measure set content;
2. Evaluating candidate measures;
3. Improving and updating the performance measure set;
4. Implementing the performance measure set;
5. Reporting results to the public; and
6. Reviewing and evaluating the performance measure set.

The ultimate goal of these efforts is the creation of a set of voluntary consensus standards for hospital care that is comprehensive but not unduly burdensome to measure and publicly report.