The population value of quality indicator reporting: a framework for prioritizing health care performance measures

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports contain more than 250 quality indicators, such as whether a patient with a suspected heart attack received an aspirin. The Department of Health and Human Services National Quality Measures Clearinghouse identifies more than 2,100 such indicators. Because resources for making quality improvements are limited, there is a need to prioritize among these indicators. We propose an approach to assess how reporting specific quality indicators would change care to improve the length and quality of life of the US population. Using thirteen AHRQ quality indicators with readily available data on the benefits of indicator reporting, we found that seven of them account for 93 percent of total benefits, while the remaining six account for only 7 percent of total benefits. Use of a framework such as this could focus resources on indicators having the greatest expected impact on population health.