Access the Final Report: National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care
The Opportunity
The consensus standards for adult diabetes care identified in this report are comprised of two groups of measures— one for the purpose of external accountability, including public reporting, and the other for the purpose of internal quality improvement. While the two groups of measures share common data elements, the measures are designed for use within their specified purposes only. That is, the quality improvement measures may not be appropriate for use in accountability or public reporting, and the accountability measures would be inadequate for effective quality improvement efforts. The comprehensive, core set of accountability and quality improvement measures is designed to assess the quality of care provided by health plans and healthcare providers for adult diabetics in the outpatient setting.
Statistics
Diabetes is one of the most common and costly medical conditions in the United States. An estimated 17 million Americans have diabetes, and the direct and indirect costs of the disease are approximately $98 billion per year.1 Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death for Americans overall, and it exacts an even greater burden on racial and ethnic minority patients, who are more likely to die from diabetes and suffer serious complications such as amputation and end-stage renal disease.2 Improved quality of care for diabetes could impact a large segment of the U.S. population.
About the Project
The project was completed in 2002.
Results
This project endorsed a core set of 29 quality improvement measures and 8 accountability measures in six areas of outpatient care plus influenza immunization and office visits for the management of adult diabetes mellitus.
Process
The National Quality Forum (NQF) management convened the Diabetes Measures Review Committee to consider whether the measures were ready to be considered as voluntary consensus standards. The Review Committee subsequently recommended that the Alliance’s “Performance Measurement Set for Adult Diabetes” be endorsed by the NQF as national voluntary consensus standards.
Funding
Support was provided, in part, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, California HealthCare Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and Department of Veterans Affairs.
Related NQF Work
2005 Update: Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care
Contact Information
For more information please call 202-783-1300 or email info@qualityforum.org
Notes
1American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org.
2Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999 Diabetes Surveillance Report, www.cdc.gov.
This project endorsed a core set of 29 quality improvement measures and 8 accountability measures in six areas of outpatient care plus influenza immunization and office visits for the management of adult diabetes mellitus.
