Home > About Us > Leadership > President's Report Archive > July 2002
Click here to login to the members area.
No changes or issues of note.
Two program staff have been hired since the last report. A Senior Program Director has been hired to direct the Quality of Cancer Care project, and an additional Research Assistant also has been hired.
Membership stands at 140 organizations, excluding applications being considered at the July 16, 2002, meeting. Although the total number of organizations has declined slightly from 148, most of the losses have been small organizations that have ceased operations. In contrast, many of the new members are large organizations - e.g., Tenet, HCA, Integris, and North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, PacificCare and Glaxo.
The Provider and Health Plan (PHP), Purchaser, and Research and Quality Improvement (RQI) Councils have held at least two intra-Council calls since the April 22, 2002, Spring Membership Meeting.
The Provider and Health Plan Council and the Research and Quality Improvement Organization Council will need to hold leadership elections this fall.
The NQF's independent auditors, Gelman, Rosenberg and Freedman, issued the final financial statements for fiscal year 2001.
The NQF has renewed its insurance coverage (umbrella and director's and officer's liability). Of note, the premiums on these policies rose approximately 18 percent compared to last year. In order to renew the director's and officer's liability, the carrier also mandated the NQF obtain errors and omission coverage, at a cost of approximately $12,000.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has generously agreed to provide $100,000 in core support/membership this year.
Serious Reportable Adverse Events in Healthcare: A Consensus Report
Printed copies of the report became available in March 2002. So far, more than 1,200 copies have been distributed, of which approximately 450 have been purchased, generating revenues of approximately $4,000.
In conjunction with the annual meeting of the National Academy for State Health Policy on August 4-6, 2002, the NQF will meet with at least 10 states interested in implementing the Serious Reportable Events List as part of a new project going by the acronym SAFER (State Alliance For Error Reporting).
Improving the Quality of Healthcare for Minority Patients: Workshop Proceedings
The workshop proceedings were released on June 13, 2002. There has been significant interest in Congress in the report. The chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Asian-Pacific Islander Caucus co-signed a "Dear Colleague" letter that distributed the report to all Caucus members and additional Members who are affiliates. Currently, we are trying to coordinate a briefing for Members and staff. Additionally, NQF may be invited to participate in the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust panel during the Caucus's annual legislative week in September. We are pursuing dissemination of the report on the Senate side, as well.
Previously I had reported that the Delmarva Foundation (Maryland /DC QIO) had met with us to discuss plans to co-convene a fall 2002 minority health conference to spotlight the report's findings and to discuss local implementation of its recommendations. Delmarva, which was to provide funding, recently contacted us to report that it now was unable to pursue the conference.
A National Framework for Healthcare Quality Measurement and Reporting (formerly referred to as the Strategic Framework Board recommendations)
The final printed document will be available July 16, 2002.
IT Summit
A final draft proceedings of the conference (based in part on the contractor document) is being prepared by NQF staff. This report will have to clear the IOM review process.
Safe Practices for Better Healthcare
A significantly revised document will be forwarded to NQF members and posted for general review in the near future. The second review period will be 30 days.
Hospital Care Performance Measures
The Steering Committee convened for the 5th time on June 14. The meeting was intended as the final in-person meeting and the intent was to discuss the framework for hospital measurement and reporting. Instead, the bulk of the meeting was devoted to considering additional measures recommended for inclusion in the initial core set - most of which came from a group of Purchasers and Consumers (and one member of the RQI Council). Ultimately, the Steering Committee opted to consider only measures it had previously reviewed and to set aside the bulk of additional measures recommended by the Purchaser-Consumer group. Because the Committee devoted relatively little time to the issue of the hospital framework, a 6th meeting has been scheduled for August 27, 2002, in Washington, DC.
Part A of the initial core set of measures - those which have been reviewed and opined on by the Steering Committee - will be forwarded to NQF members for a vote before July 19, 2002. 37 measures will be included on this ballot.
We currently plan to convene a separate workshop to address some of the fundamental criteria and assumptions behind the Purchaser-Consumer recommendations as compared to the Steering Committee. To a lesser extent, the workshop will consider the individual measures recommended by the Purchaser-Consumer group. Following the workshop and additional staff work, we anticipate consulting the Steering Committee to identify measures for part B of the initial measure set, with the goal of achieving consensus on both parts A and B before the end of 2002. Pacific Business Group on Health and the National Health Care Purchasing Institute have pledged $25,000 in support of the workshop.
Nursing Homes Performance Measures
The voting phase concluded on July 15, 2002. As previously noted, the NQF had forwarded a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recommending incorporation of the CMS validation study and results from the 6-state pilot into the core sets. Following additional communications with CMS about this matter, NQF management will make a recommendation to the Board in this regard at the July 16th meeting.
Quality of Cancer Care Measures
Appointment of the Steering Committee is complete. The first meeting will be held in Washington, DC, on September 4-5, 2002, at the Washington Marriott. (See also "Outreach" below.)
Diabetes Management Performance Measures
On June 30, the Alliance responded to the NQF's request for its views on NQF member comments. We anticipate the ballot for the diabetes measures will be forwarded to NQF members for consideration before July 19, 2002.
Considerable contact with Congressional offices has occurred in the last two months. A large part of this has been related to release of the report Improving Healthcare Quality for Minority Patients, and we anticipate additional follow-up briefings. Further in this regard, Helen Wu, the project director, will conduct a poster session at an upcoming HHS meeting on minority health. NQF also has been invited to participate in a workshop on minority health at the American Osteopathic Association's annual meeting in August.
Also the subject of discussion with "the Hill" has been draft legislation on quality of care for cancer that is being prepared by Senators Kennedy and Frist. Title I of the bill proposes to codify the NQF's ongoing work for the National Cancer Institute. On June 21, 2002, at the behest of the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, I briefed several organizations about the NQF, generally, and the Quality of Cancer Care Project, specifically.
The SFB papers should be published this summer as a supplement to Medical Care.
The first meeting of the Strategic Advisory Council was held on June 5 at the NQF offices. SAC members attending were: Don Berwick (Chair), Bob Galvin, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Judy Hibbard, and Arnie Milstein. NQF staff and the SAC reviewed the evolution of the SFB recommendations into the NQF product, A National Framework for Healthcare Measurement and Reporting. Additionally the SAC was briefed about each ongoing project, and I discussed some views about the NQF strategic vision. SAC member comments were overall supportive and favorable. They urged NQF to push for as comprehensive a measure set as possible for each project - in particular the hospitals project.
The NQF's 3rd Annual Meeting will be held on October 1-2, 2002, at the International Trade Center/Ronald Reagan Building.