Health, healthy living, and physical and mental well-being are important for a productive workforce and a thriving society. The evidence is clear: public health programs have been increasingly effective in reducing preventable causes of death, and research indicates policies that incentivizing wellness and healthy behaviors could result in $19 billion in healthcare savings over 10 years.
As a result, the National Quality Strategy has made working with communities to promote wide use of best practices to enable healthy living and well-being a national priority, proposing three goals for improvement:
- Promote community interventions that result in improvement of social, economic, and environmental factors;
- Promote interventions that result in adoption of the most important healthy lifestyle behaviors across the lifespan; and
- Promote the receipt of effective clinical preventive services across the lifespan in clinical and community settings.
Related NQF Work
- Health and Well-Being Measures 2014
This project is now beginning its second phase of reviewing measures for endorsement. Current measures fall under the categories: Community-Level Indicators of Health and Disease, Health-Related Behaviors and Practices to Promote Healthy Living, Modifiable Social, Economic & Environmental Determinants of Health, Oral Health, and Primary Prevention Screening. The majority of the measures during this phase focus on child wellness visits and immunization.
- Rural Health
This work is intended to provide recommendations to HHS regarding performance measurement issues for rural, low-volume providers, which include Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, Community Health Centers, and the clinicians who serve in these types of facilities. These providers often face unique issues, such as low payment volume and scarcity of resources that make measurement difficult. The Committee will consider how to mitigate these challenges in payment incentive programs for those providers; identify which measures are most appropriate for those programs; and recommend how future development resources are best directed to address particular measurement gaps areas.
- Eye Care and ENT Conditions
This project seeks to identify and endorse performance measures for accountability and quality improvement that address eye care and ear nose and throat health. NQF currently has over 20 endorsed measures that are due for maintenance in the areas of glaucoma, macular degeneration, hearing screening and evaluation, and ear infections.
- Renal Measures
NQF will review performance measures focused on renal conditions, including measures for ESRD and CKD by soliciting new measures on any renal condition or treatment at various settings of care and reviewing endorsed measures for scheduled maintenance.
- Population Health Framework
This project will allow NQF—through a multistakeholder, collaborative process—to develop a common framework for communities that will offer practical guidance for improving population health.
Access Phase 1 Report
- Prioritizing Measures: Adult Immunization
This project will seek to identify critical areas for performance measurement to optimize vaccination rates and outcomes across adult populations. This project is one of five Prioritizing Measures initiatives.
Access the Final Report
- Prioritizing Measures: Health Workforce
Health Workforce emphasizes the role of the workforce in prevention and care coordination, linkages between healthcare and community-based services, and workforce deployment. This project is one of five Prioritizing Measures initiatives.
Access the Final Report
- Behavioral Health Measures Project
NQF is currently evaluating a set of quality measures aimed at establishing national priorities for improving the delivery of behavioral health services, achieving better behavioral health outcomes, and improving the behavioral health of the U.S. population, especially those with mental illness and substance abuse.
Press Release | Endorsement Summary
- MAP Report: Measuring Healthcare Quality for the Dual Eligible Beneficiary Population
The diverse dual eligible population includes some of the sickest and most vulnerable individuals covered by either Medicare or Medicaid. Rapid improvement in caring for these beneficiaries would in some ways represent the perfect “bull’s-eye” of achieving the National Quality Strategy goals of healthier people, better care, and more affordable care. Performance measures are central to understanding our progress in improving quality. In this report, the Measure Applications Partnership outlines a vision for high-quality care that seeks to address the fragmented and episodic nature of the care the dual eligible population receives.
- Perinatal and Reproductive Health Measures Project
In April 2012, NQF endorsed 14 quality measures on perinatal care. The measures address a wide range of care concerns, including childbirth, pregnancy and post-partum care, and newborn care. Several of the measures have the potential to dramatically affect the health and well-being of both mothers and newborns, including a measure focused on hepatitis B vaccination rates for newborns, and a measure assessing the number of babies exclusively fed breast milk during hospitalization.
Press Release | Endorsement Summary
- Population Health: Prevention Measures Project
In May 2012, NQF endorsed 19 quality measures addressing a range of clinical preventive concerns, including influenza and pneumococcal immunizations, and screenings for specific cancers, sexually transmitted diseases, and osteoporosis.
Press Release | Endorsement Summary
- Population Health: Phase 2 Measures Project
NQF evaluated a set of population-level quality measures, focused on several care concerns, including but not limited to body mass index, nutritional and physical activity counseling, and HIV diagnosis.
Endorsement Summary
