Future Directions for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities

Institute of Medicine Report

By the Committee on Future Directions for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports, Board on Health Care Services, Cheryl Ulmer, Michelle Bruno, and Sheila Burke, Editors

The National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports (NHQR and NHDR) play a fundamental role in examining quality improvement and disparities reduction. In this report, prepared at the request of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggests ways to reformulate and enhance our Nation's essential measures of quality and equity, to facilitate informed decisionmaking, and to help set the strategic direction of the Nation's quality improvement enterprise. 

Contents

Reviewers
  Foreword
  Preface
  Acknowledgments
Summary
1. Introduction
2. Re-Envisioning the NHQR and NHDR
3. Updating the Framework for the NHQR and NHDR
4. Adopting a More Quantitative and Transparent Measure Selection Process
5. Enhancing Data Resources
6. Improving Presentation of Information
7. Implementing Recommended Changes
Acronyms
Appendixes
A. Previous IOM Recommendations for the National Healthcare Reports
B. Key Findings of the NHQRs and NHDRs
C. Previous Conceptual Framework
D. Measurement Opportunities for the Framework's Components of Quality Care
E. HHS Interagency Workgroup for the NHQR and NHDR
F. The Expected Population Value of Quality Indicator Reporting (EPV-QIR): A Framework for Prioritizing Healthcare Performance Measurement
G. IOM Subcommittee on Standardized Collection of Race/Ethnicity Data for Healthcare Quality Improvement: Recommendations
H. Additional Assessments of Data Presentation in the NHQR and NHDR
I. An Illustrative Funding Example
J. Committee Member and Staff Biographies