In recent years, our nation awakened to a sobering reality: our healthcare system, that delivers innovative help and healing, also was generating preventable harm. People were suffering or dying from avoidable mistakes, and a picture of health ‘have and have-nots’ was emerging. Our collective bill was growing for services that often generated little value. All the while, we as a nation were experiencing more life-debilitating disease and watching our overall indicators of health slip.
The NQF-convened National Priorities Partnership (NPP) arose out of this reality, bringing together key stakeholders committed to making healthcare safe and affordable and people healthy. Years in the making and with major input from NPP, the nation now has a national blueprint for achieving a high-value healthcare system: the National Quality Strategy (NQS).
The NQS outlines six priorities designed to help focus public and private efforts and accelerate meaningful change within the healthcare system:
These priorities are ingrained in the work of NQF, as part of its overall mission to improve health and the healthcare system. While not specifically outlined in the NQS, NQF also focuses on additional priorities essential to meeting the vision of the NQS, including:
NQF is focused on achieving the day when healthcare is consistently safe, affordable, equitable, and effective. Where no one is harmed as they heal. And when all Americans, and the communities they live in, are healthier than they are today. This vision is attainable, and these priorities will help us get there.
