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Establishing national goals for quality improvement
Elizabeth A McGlynn1, Christine K Cassel, Sheila T Leatherman
1RAND Health, Santa Monica, California 90401, USA. mcglynn@rand.org.
Medical Care
|January 25, 2003
Summary
Developing national quality improvement goals is crucial for enhancing healthcare. A structured process, involving evidence and consensus, can effectively formulate these essential national quality objectives.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Quality Improvement
- Health Policy Development
- National Health Initiatives
Background:
- Public engagement in healthcare quality improvement is challenging due to varied stakeholder definitions of quality.
- The Strategic Framework Board (SFB) proposed national quality improvement goals to address this.
- National goals aim to make quality issues more concrete and solutions more compelling.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish criteria for selecting national quality improvement goals.
- To demonstrate analytical methods supporting goal development.
- To outline and illustrate a process for formulating national quality goals.
Main Methods:
- Literature review focused on quality improvement and goal setting.
- Discussions and deliberations among members of the Strategic Framework Board (SFB).
Main Results:
- National goals have historically driven progress in initiatives like Healthy People 2000 and 2010.
- The proposed process integrates evidence synthesis with a consensus-building approach.
- This methodology supports the creation of actionable national quality objectives.
Conclusions:
- Establishing national quality improvement goals is vital for a national quality measurement and reporting system.
- The outlined steps provide a practical and effective framework for achieving national quality objectives.
- This approach facilitates a systematic and productive method for setting healthcare quality targets.