Outcomes management: an interdisciplinary search for best practice

Rising U.S. health-care costs have resulted in mandates to reform the health system. Payors are closely scrutinizing care delivery and have empowered themselves as gatekeepers for consumer health-care access. In the late 1980s, outcomes management emerged as an interdisciplinary process advocating the measurement of health outcomes among populations undergoing medical care. Outcomes management provides a mechanism to foster development of patient-driven health services aimed to impact clinical quality through intermediate and long-term outcome analysis. Outcomes measurement facilitates ongoing enhancement of interdisciplinary health-care delivery, enabling determination of "best" practice and identification of opportunities for practice improvement. The advanced practice nurse's unique educational preparation provides a framework for development of the prerequisite leadership qualities necessary to cultivate an outcomes management program.