national, state, and community level that is leveraging
its collective influence to align public and private sector
activities with the National Priorities, and support their
implementation. The Partners believe that reaching
consensus around high-leverage issue areas can drive
transformational change in the nation’s healthcare
delivery system, dramatically improving the quality
of care patients receive while simultaneously making
better use of resources.
Recently, the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) requested NQF to convene the
National Priorities Partnership (NPP) to provide
input on the National Quality Strategy and offer
recommendations for a set of national priorities and
goals. NPP is recommending the original six priorities:
- Patient and Family Engagement
- Safety
- Care Coordination
- Palliative and End-of-Life Care
- Elimination of Medical Care Overuse
• Population Health
In addition there are two additional areas of focus.
Equitable Access will ensure all patients receive
affordable, timely, and high-quality care; while
Infrastructure Supports (like HIT) will address
underlying system changes critical to achieving the
national priorities and goals.
The Partners—each representing a distinct voice
in healthcare—are uniquely positioned to help
achieve these National Priorities and Goals, and
fundamentally transform the nation’s healthcare
system. To make NPP as effective a body as possible,
16 new organizations were recently added, bolstering
the Partnership’s already deep bench of expertise
that can drive towards better care, affordable care,
and healthy people/healthy communities. Margaret
E. O’Kane, president of the National Committee for
Quality Assurance, and Bernard Rosof, chair of the
American Medical Association-convened Physician
Consortium for Performance Improvement, serve as
NPP co-chairs.
“The addition of new Partners positions us well
to make informed, actionable recommendations to
the Secretary for how care in this country can be
dramatically improved,” said O’Kane. “After the long
debate around reform, Americans deserve a healthcare |
system that achieves better outcomes for them and their
loved ones. We believe our work can make that delivery
system more of a reality.”
HHS’s National Quality Strategy is intended to
include priorities and goals that address:
- Person-centeredness and family engagement
- Care for patients of all ages, populations, service
locations, and sources of coverage
- Elimination of disparities in care
- Opportunities for the alignment of public and
private sectors
The recommendations put forward by NPP address
all of these key principles. Furthermore, the Partners
have several years’ worth of action and cooperation
to demonstrate the broad support for NPP’s national
priorities and goals.
“NPP’s initial framework was the result of a multistakeholder
effort, and its results—both visionary
and implementable—align with many aspects of
health reform legislation,” said Rosof. “We believe
NPP’s collective efforts will provide an important
starting point for the development of the Secretary’s
National Strategy. The National Priorities Partnership
encompasses the diversity of representation needed
to support real implementation and the diversity of
knowledge needed to effectively improve the delivery
system.”
Implementing a higher-quality health system is a
challenging task, but NPP is building on an impressive
foundation of accomplishments. In 2009, the definition
of meaningful use for electronic health records was
tied to a framework structured around the National
Priorities and Goals. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine
(IOM) recommended that future versions of the
Agency for Health Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s)
National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports
(NHQ/DR) should align with nationally recognized
priority areas, including NPP’s original priorities and
expanding to emphasize access and infrastructure
supports. In a sign of the broader acceptance of
NPP, the nursing and child health communities both
embraced NPP’s framework and have begun work to
align efforts around the priority areas.
Momentum is growing around NPP’s work, but the
support and alignment of stakeholders at every level is
critical. To learn how you can make a difference, visit
www.nationalprioritiespartnership.org. |
