NQF Member comments due October 10, 2008 by 6:00 PM ET
Public comments
due October 3, 2008 by 6:00 PM ET
The NQF-endorsed™ Safe Practices are a set of voluntary consensus standards that serve as a tool for healthcare providers, purchasers, and consumers to identify and encourage practices that will reduce errors and improve care. These practices were not intended to capture all activities that may reduce adverse healthcare events; rather they focus on practices that: 1) have strong evidence that they are effective in reducing the likelihood of harming a patient; 2) are generalizable (i.e. they may be applied in multiple clinical care settings and/or multiple types of patients); 3) are likely to have a significant benefit to patient safety if fully implemented; and 4) have knowledge about them that is usable by consumers, purchasers, providers, and researchers. Currently the NQF-endorsed™ Safe Practices for Better Healthcare 2006 Update content is being revised to incorporate recently published evidence, thirteen of these practices have material changes. In addition there are eight new practices recommended to further improve patient safety. Two practices, Evidenced-based Referral and Peri-operative Myocardial Infarction Prevention were retired from the safe practices.
The Steering Committee assisted NQF staff in evaluating the candidate practices against the NQF-endorsed™ safe practice criteria of specificity, benefit, evidence of effectiveness, generalizability, and readiness for implementation, as well as, standard practice specifications identified by the Committee to achieve national harmonization. The detailed practice updates and summary chart of recommended Safe Practices for 2009 are available for Member review only.
Pursuant to the CDP, this draft document, along with the accompanying material, is being provided for purposes of review and comment only—not voting. You may post your comments and view the comments of others using the navigation menu on the left.
NQF will post and take into consideration only those comments received by the above deadline(s). NQF reserves the right to identify and remove any objectionable content. NQF is not responsible for the views and opinions expressed in posted comments.
Download a PDF of the National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Safe Practices for Better Healthcare: 2009 Update and view the Timeline for Consideration of the Practices
NQF Member comments must be submitted no later than 6:00 pm, ET, October 10, 2008.
NQF is now using a program that facilitates electronic submission of comments on this draft report. You may post your comments and view the comments of others on the NQF website. All comments should be submitted using the online submission process.
Supporting documents related to your comments may be submitted by email to tgary@qualityforum.org with “Safe Practices For Better Healthcare: 2009 Update” in the subject line and your contact information in the body of the email.