NQF Honors Maine Health Management Coalition with Consumers and Patients for Quality Award
Washington, DC—The National Quality Forum (NQF) today presented its Consumers and Patients for Quality Award to the Maine Health Management Coalition (MHMC). The award recognizes the organization’s achievements both in Maine and nationally to provide high-quality, affordable healthcare through payment reform, delivery system reform, consumer engagement, and public reporting.
NQF’s Consumers and Patients for Quality Award, established in 2015, recognizes outstanding contributions of individuals and organizations who work to educate and engage individuals, families, and caregivers to advance healthcare quality.
Since 1991, MHMC has played a leading role in healthcare quality measurement and public reporting and has acted as a catalyst for local and national quality improvement. Access to provider and hospital ratings through the organization’s website, www.GetBetterMaine.org, has demonstrated measureable impact on the cost and quality of care for consumers and patients. MHMC, which has shared best practices with numerous organizations nationally, provides dedicated mentoring to other regional health improvement coalitions.
“Maine Health Management Coalition’s long-term commitment to improving healthcare has fostered collaboration throughout Maine and been foundational to Maine’s position today as a national leader in healthcare reform,” said Kirsten Sloan, senior policy director, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and chair of the jury panel for NQF’s Consumers and Patients for Quality Award. “The organization believes that what gets measured gets improved—words that are clearly supported by its actions to provide consumers with trustworthy information to help them make informed decisions about their health and healthcare.”
MHMC employs two major efforts to gather and share healthcare quality and safety information with consumers and clinicians: the organization’s Pathways to Excellence program, which solicits feedback from consumers and providers to support measure transparency; and its website, which reports out information to the public. Although reporting by providers is voluntary, the organization has secured the support of practices in the state to provide quality, safety, patient experience, and total cost of care ratings to consumers.
“It is an honor to be recognized by NQF for our long-term commitment to improving health and healthcare transparency,” said Andrew Webber, President and CEO, Maine Health Management Coalition. “By publicly reporting quality information on doctors and hospitals, we hope to empower the public to make informed decisions about the care they receive and motivate providers to continuously improve their performance.”
Maine Health Management Coalition, a member of NQF, is a regional health improvement coalition that brings together over 75 multistakeholder members, including public and private purchasers, hospitals, providers, and health plans, working collaboratively to measure and report healthcare value.
The award was presented at NQF’s 2016 Annual Conference in Washington, DC.
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The National Quality Forum leads national collaboration to improve health and healthcare quality through measurement. Learn more at www.qualityforum.org.
