For more than a decade, the National Quality Forum has crafted and continually improved a process to make sure endorsed standards have cleared NQF’s bar for rigor and balance. The process is designed to produce consensus from a broad spectrum of groups that each touch a different part of the healthcare system.
NQF has adopted a three-year schedule for measure endorsement in 22 areas, such as cardiology, neurology, perinatal care, and infectious disease. To respond to new developments that signal a need for updated standards for patient care, NQF also has a process to consider endorsement projects that fall outside the schedule.
For each Consensus Development Project, NQF follows a careful nine-step process that ensures transparency, public input, and discussion among representatives across the healthcare enterprise.
- Call for Intent to Submit Measures represents the formal launch of a project. Interested measure stewards and developers are invited to notify NQF of their intent to submit measures for endorsement.
- Call for Nominations allows anyone to suggest a candidate for the committee that will oversee the project. Committees are diverse, often encompassing experts in a particular field, providers, scientists, and consumers. After selection, NQF posts committee rosters on its website to solicit public comments on the composition of the panel and makes adjustments as needed to ensure balanced representation.
- Call for Standards starts a 30-day period for developers to submit a measure or practice through NQF’s online submission forms.
- Steering Committee Review puts submitted measures to a four-part test to ensure they reflect sound science, will be useful to providers and patients, and will make a difference in improving quality. The expert steering committee conducts this detailed review in open sessions, each of which starts a limited period for public comment.
- Public Comment solicits input from anyone who wishes to respond to a draft report that outlines the steering committee’s assessment of measures for possible endorsement. The steering committee may request a revision to the proposed measures.
- Member Vote asks NQF members to review the draft report and cast their votes on the endorsement of measures.
- CSAC Review marks the point at which the NQF Consensus Standards Approval Committee (CSAC) deliberates on the merits of the measure and the issues raised during the review process, and makes a recommendation on endorsement to the Board of Directors. The CSAC includes consumers, purchasers, healthcare professionals, and others. It provides the big picture to ensure that standards are being consistently assessed from project to project.
- Board Ratification asks for review and ratification by the NQF Board of Directors of measures recommended for endorsement.
- Appeal opens a period when anyone can appeal the Board’s decision.
Learn how measures can work for safety.
