Home > About Us > Leadership > President's Report Archive > September 2003
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No significant changes.
Phil Dunn joined NQF on September 23, 2003, as Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs. In late fall or early 2004, depending on the outcome of current contract negotiations and funding requests, we anticipate hiring one or two additional Research Analysts (e.g., Masters degree training with 0-2 years experience) and one or two Program Directors/Senior Program Directors (e.g., RN, PharmD, PhD, MD plus 5-10 years experience). Positions will be advertised via newspaper, electronic postings, listservs, etc.
Since the meeting on May 14, 2003, the Board has approved 18 applications, including one application from Canada. If the applications which are pending Board action are approved, membership will stand at 195 member organizations. Some state entities that are on the Aug-Jul membership cycles have indicated they will be unable to renew their memberships due to financial limitations; we are discussing with ASTHO and others how best to maintain state engagement.
All Councils continue to meet regularly by conference call and/or e-mail; the Council Chairs and Vice Chairs convened by conference call during the summer to discuss the Annual Meeting, Inter-Council Sessions, and Member Council break-out sessions.
Members were invited to submit abstracts to present information about their quality improvement initiatives (with an emphasis how it is transferable as a model usable by others) as part of an "Implementation Panel" on the Annual Meeting program. Thirty-three abstracts were submitted by 31 organizations. Council Chairs and Vice Chairs independently ranked the submissions and then conferred by conference call to finalize the total number of presentations and the specific initiatives to be presented. The Council leadership identified 11 presentations for the Implementation Panel or Inter-Council sessions, and concurred with the suggestion to offer Members not accommodated by these slots an opportunity to submit information for a poster session. Also on the conference call, the Council leadership agreed to a proposal by the Provider and Health Plan Council to hold concurrent Inter-Council sessions (instead of one large session, as was held at the Spring Membership meeting); Council leaders also agreed to increase the time devoted to Inter-Council sessions and decrease the time allotted to Member Council break-outs. Following discussion on format and content, Council leadership agreed to hold three concurrent sessions from 9:45-10:15 am and three different concurrent sessions from 10:30-11 am. The topics to be discussed are: the Joint Hospital Public Reporting Initiative (1A), NQF Nursing Care Performance Measures project (2A), Member Reactions to Implementation Committee meeting (3A), H-CAHPS and the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project (1B), Update on NQF Activities (2B), Barriers to Implementation (3B). Purchaser and Consumer Councils will hold elections this fall. As previously approved by the Board, the nomination period will commence shortly after the Annual Meeting.
Allen Feezor has left CalPERS and joined University Health Systems in North Carolina. This moves his organizational affiliation from a purchaser to provider, so he has resigned from the Board.
NQF continues to negotiate with AHRQ and NCI for phase II of the Quality of Care Performance Measures for Cancer project. NQF also has met with Delmarva Foundation and CMS regarding two work statements for additional work in 2004-2005 generally in nursing homes, home health, and hospitals, although the specifics and timing of such work remain to be identified by CMS, except the hospitals work shall include CMS providing some funds to the "cardiac surgery" project as further discussed below. Additional proposals to support projects in healthcare quality for minority populations, patient safety, and ambulatory care quality are under discussion with various foundations.
Serious Reportable Adverse Events in Healthcare: A Consensus Report
Earlier this year Minnesota enacted a law that will require hospitals to report to the state the 27 items included on the NQF list, using both the specifications and definitions from the NQF report.
In response to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001, which among other things requires the Department of Defense (DoD) to implement a patient care error reporting and management system, the DoD TRICARE program began requiring that its TRICARE contractors begin collecting data on the 27 items from the NQF list.
Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care: 2003 Update
The Alliance for Diabetes Care forwarded its proposed revisions. Following a conference call of the NQF Diabetes Review Committee, updated specifications for both the accountability set and quality improvement set have been forwarded for NQF Member and public for review under the CDP. Public comments are due by October 6, 2003, and NQF Member comments are due by October 13, 2003. Safe Practices for Better Healthcare Interest in the report continues to be high and to date nearly 1,200 copies have been distributed or sold.
A Comprehensive Framework for Hospital Performance Evaluation
The report was released on May 22, 2003, and to date more than 750 copies have been distributed or sold.
National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: An Initial Performance Measure Set
The published report of 39 NQF-endorsed voluntary consensus standards for hospital care became available on September 29, 2003.
Reaching the Tipping Point: Measuring and Reporting Quality Using the NQF-Endorsed Hospital Care Measures - Proceedings of a National Summit
This published report of the proceedings of a February 2003 summit co-convened with the National Health Care Purchasing Institute and support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation became available on September 29, 2003.
National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing Home Care
NQF Member and public review occurred in June/July, and NQF Member voting concluded on September 22, 2003. The NQF Board will review and act on the results of balloting at its meeting on September 30, 2003.
Consumer-Focused Mammography Center Quality Measures
The project's Coordinating Committee held its final meeting in September 2003, and a draft of its recommendations will be circulated to NQF Members for comment before a final report is delivered to RWJF. The Committee identified measures for a pilot project to be funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing-Sensitive Performance Measurement
The Steering Committee has concluded its deliberations. The Committee's draft report recommends 13 measures, as well as research and other recommendations. This report will be available to NQF Members and the public for review under the CDP on October 3, 2003. A "preliminary draft" copy that contains all information but that does not include last-minute copy-editing has been distributed to all attendees of the 4th Annual Meeting. Public comments are due by October 31, and NQF Member comments by November 7, 2003.
Home Health Performance Measures
CMS has advised us that due to the timing of its public reporting pilot, it now does not anticipate asking NQF to begin this work until January 2004, instead of November 2003 (and previously September 2003).
Cardiac Surgery Measures
Following a successful planning meeting in February 2003, the following organizations have agreed to provide funding for the project: Guidant Foundation, Department of Veterans Affairs, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. A call for Steering Committee member nominations was forwarded to NQF Members on September 25, 2003; nominations are due by October 30, 2003.
National Commission for Quality Long-term Care
A draft contract and mutual agreement of understanding on scope of activities is awaiting final execution by the funding partners.
Child Healthcare Quality
NegotAn invitational Workshop scheduled to be held on September 19, 2003, had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Isabel; it is being rescheduled for later this year. Support (in part) has been provided by the March of Dimes and the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, as well as in-kind support for background papers from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research and others.
Behavioral Health
We are finalizing the parameters around a planning workshop to explore the dimensions of a project on reaching consensus on a set of performance measures for quality of behavioral health care. Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health System/Adventis HealthCare and the Department of Veterans Affairs have provided some funds for this initial effort.
Cancer Care Quality Measures
Negotiations with AHRQ and NCI on the scope and process for phase II of the project continue.
Patient Safety Taxonomy
Efforts continue on finding a sponsor to undertake a consensus project on a patient safety taxonomy, using the taxonomy proposed by JCAHO, AMA, and others as the candidate standard.
Standardizing Credentialing for Independent Licensed Practitioners
Efforts to identify funding for this project continue.
Ambulatory Care Quality
Discussions with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about the scope and nature of a multi-year project continue.
An active outreach effort continues.
In response to a nationwide request for proposals from the Commonwealth Fund, NQF submitted a letter of intent for a project examining implementation of "Safe Practice 10" on informed consent in Low English Proficiency/low literacy populations. NQF was among 15 organizations invited to submit a full proposal and one of 5 invited to present the proposal and discuss it with Fund leadership. The Awards Committee for the JCAHO-NQF John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Awards, Chaired by Lisa Iezzonni, recommended four awards, which will be presented at the NQF Annual Meeting: Jeffrey Cooper (Individual Achievement); Leapfrog Group (Advocacy-National); Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (Advocacy-Local); and Abington Memorial Hospital (System). No award in the Research category was recommended for 2003. The third meeting of the Strategic Advisory Council is scheduled for October 29. As with previous meetings, this will be a closed working meeting. The Advisory Committee on Implementation Strategy and Priorities met in Executive Session on Sunday, September 28, and will meet in Open Session during the Annual Meeting on September 30. A 1-day open meeting (NQF Members only) is scheduled for October 30, 2003, at the Washington, DC Renaissance Hotel, 999 9th Street, NW.
The Advisory Committee on Data Integrity and Availability has met by conference call to begin identifying its agenda and workplan.