The Institute of Medicine Committee on Quality Measures for the Healthy People Leading Health Indicators has made six recommendations to HHS about quality measures in a new report.
The IOM committee was tasked with identifying quality measures for HHS' population health efforts and for the Leading Health Indicators in its Healthy People 2020 initiative, HHS' agenda for improving the nation's health.
In the report, "Toward Quality Measures for Population Health and the Leading Health Indicators," the IOM committee made three key findings and six recommendations for HHS. The committee calls for HHS to choose a single set of quality measures for the multisectoral health system, which includes public health and community organizations in addition to healthcare organizations. Here are the six recommendations:
1. "All partners in the multisectoral health system […] should adopt as their explicit purpose to continually improve health outcomes of the entire population and the conditions in which people can be healthy," the authors wrote.
2. HHS and population health improvement partners should choose a set of measures to assess the quality of the health system.
3. HHS and other stakeholders should use a set of criteria for choosing population health improvement quality measures. (The report includes a list of criteria.)
4. HHS should take a systematic approach to the development of health system quality measures, and HHS should create or name a non-governmental entity to endorse quality measures.
5. HHS should develop and implement data collection, analysis and dissemination of quality measures.
6. HHS and stakeholders should integrate health system quality measures into all health reform activities.
More Articles on Population Health:
Study: How mHealth is Improving Population Health Worldwide
Study: Population Health May Drive Geographic Variation in Medicare Costs
10 Things the Most Progressive Hospitals Do