Organization

National Quality Forum


Washington state publicly posts hospital adverse drug event data

Industry News | Monday, August 09 2010
Information on adverse events, medical errors and ways to prevent them in Washington hospitals and facilities is now online on a recently uploaded website where errors are reported by medical facilities and tracked by the state health department to improve patient safety and care at hospitals and facilities across the state, according to the Washington State Department of Health.
 

HIT Standards Committee: Clinical Quality Workgroup to emerge from hibernation?

Industry News | Wednesday, July 28 2010
The Clinical Quality Workgroup of the Health IT Standards Committee under the Department of Health and Human Services is now in a “hibernation period," said Janet Corrigan, MD, chair and president of the National Quality Forum, speaking at the HIT Standards Committee's July meeting.
 

CMS seeks comment on PQRI medication measures

Industry News | Monday, July 12 2010
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with Quality Insights of Pennsylvania to develop and maintain quality measures for the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). PQRI Measure 130, Documentation & Verification of Current Medications in the Medical Record, has been referred for further action in an effort to remove National Quality Forum time-limited endorsement status of the measure.
 

HIT Standards Committee: Clinical quality workgroup tackles trio of initiatives

Top Stories | Thursday, July 01 2010
Written by Lisa Fratt
During an HIT Clinical Quality Workgroup update this week, Janet Corrigan, chair of the HIT Standards Committee, and Floyd Eisenberg, workgroup member, provided updates on three initiatives: re-tooling of 2011 meaningful use measures, results of an environmental scan of leading healthcare systems and an NQF Fast Track project.
 

NQF now accepting quality data set model comments

Industry News | Tuesday, June 22 2010
The National Quality Forum (NQF) will be holding a public comment period on the Quality Data Set, an information model that defines concepts used in quality measures and clinical care to automate EHR use, through July 1.
 

NQF forms new Health IT Advisory Committee, names members

Industry News | Monday, May 10 2010
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has formed a new Health IT Advisory Committee (HITAC). Members of the new advisory committee represent a wide range of healthcare stakeholders, including consumers, providers, clinicians, purchasers, suppliers, and public and community healthcare organizations.
 

ACP: EHRs critical to effective reporting of quality measures

Industry News | Monday, April 26 2010
Increasing the use of quality measurement as part of EHR systems is critical to achieving meaningful use of health IT and would allow for a more complete reflection of care processes and patient outcomes, the American College of Physicians (ACP) reported at its annual meeting in Toronto.
 

Webinar: Quality measurements require more national uniformity, health IT

Web Exclusives | Thursday, April 22 2010
Describing the current state of healthcare performance measurements and the transition to EHRs as “a cacophony of well-meaning but uncoordinated signals,” Helen Burstin, MD, senior vice president for performance measures of the National Quality Forum, explained during a HIMSS quality measurement webinar on April 21 that by setting national priorities, the strategies and efforts of multiple groups in the U.S. can be aligned towards improvement.
 

Webinar: Evidence-based quality metrics are only the beginning

Web Exclusives | Wednesday, April 14 2010
“We cannot only focus on quality measurement … Measuring is essential but not sufficient to improve quality,” said Louis Diamond, MBChC, PACP, vice president and medical director for Thomson Reuters Healthcare and Science in a recent informational webinar on quality initiatives, sponsored by HIMSS.
 

North Shore-LIJ Health System receives NQF award

Industry News | Monday, January 18 2010
The North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System has been awarded the 2010 National Quality Forum (NQF) National Quality Healthcare Award for its commitment to providing data-driven quality, transparency and patient-centered healthcare.
 

NQF endorses 70 IT-based quality measures

Industry News | Wednesday, January 06 2010
The National Quality Forum (NQF) recently endorsed 70 measures that combine data from two or more common electronic sources such as administrative claims, pharmacy systems, laboratory systems and registries to advance use of electronic data for quality improvement.
 

National Quality Forum endorses updated safe practices

Industry News | Tuesday, January 05 2010
To guide healthcare systems in providing safe care, the nonprofit National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed an updated list of Safe Practices for Better Healthcare.
 

Report: NQF releases Quality Data Set for clinical EHRs

Industry News | Monday, November 16 2009
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released its Quality Data Set report, which addresses the gap between EHR systems and the lack of quality measure specifications in clinical use EHRs.
 

NQF panel seeks comment on EHR quality measure specs

Top Stories | Tuesday, June 23 2009
A National Quality Forum (NQF) committee focused on health IT is seeking comments on a draft data set for quality measurement in healthcare, saying that current quality measurement specifications are not designed to make use of EHRs and rely on administrative rather than clinical data.

 

Bill links Medicare payments to quality measurements

Top Stories | Friday, May 01 2009
Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., has introduced the Quality FIRST Act (H.R. 1776), a bill to provide for a program of quality measurement and reporting and for the use of performance-based payment within Medicare for inpatient services.
 

NQF reconsiders timeliness of CT scan in stroke-treatment guidelines

Top Stories | Wednesday, April 22 2009
The National Quality Forum (NQF) is reconsidering its rejection of stroke-treatment guidelines that would call for a CT scan within 45 minutes. However, the group maintains that the current guidelines "recommend that patients with stroke symptoms have a timely CT scan."
 
Web Exclusives

Feature: Tort reform may curb non-indicated imaging

Physicians in states with medical liability tort reform laws ordered fewer imaging studies for emergency patients with mild-moderate head trauma, according to a study published July 13 in the online edition of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Beaconology for beginners: A chat with ONC's Aaron McKethan

The ability to transform healthcare delivery at the community level requires information and tools for both consumers and providers—not one or the other, said Aaron McKethan, program director for the Beacon Community Program under the Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). McKethan discussed "Beaconology," an informal term used by ONC to describe the basics of the Beacon Program, in an exclusive interview yesterday.

Feature: Early a.m. rad shift expedites communication of urgent findings

An early morning radiologist shift can expedite the communication of urgent findings and improve patient care, according to a study in this month's Journal of the American College of Radiology. “The Joint Commission and the ACR have emphasized the importance of improved communication, particularly of critical test results, for better patient care,” Rathachai Kaewlai, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, shared with Health Imaging News.

Feature: U.S. needs national strategy to curb imaging overutilization

Medical imaging overutilization--a growing concern in the U.S.--exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, while also adding to rising healthcare costs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology. In an interview, William R. Hendee, PhD, lead author, reviewed various methods by which medical imaging could be curtailed.

Radiology: Prelim study shows CE breast CT outperforms CT, mammo

Dedicated contrast-enhanced (CE) breast CT delivered significantly improved conspicuity of malignant breast lesions, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), compared with unenhanced breast CT and mammography, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

SMU nets nearly $600K to study ultrasound in bone strength assessment

Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas has received a $596,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Neurological Disorders and Stroke Institute to study the role of ultrasound in determining the effects of radiation on bone.

PORTALS

Advanced Visualization

Molecular Imaging

Integration Tools & Interoperability

More Portal Topics