The Opportunity
Many parts of the U.S remain unprepared for emergencies. This is despite the development of cross-sector programs to improve the nation’s preparedness capabilities during national and regional emergencies such as bioterrorism, disease outbreaks, and inclement weather1. Results from the 2017 National Health Security Preparedness Index indicate preparedness improvements, however there are still large differences in preparedness capabilities across the U.S. with some regions lagging significantly behind the rest of the nation2.
The current landscape of healthcare system readiness include critical and relevant metrics for public health and disease surveillance programs. However, few metrics exist for healthcare facilities, healthcare systems, or communities to assess and evaluate readiness for a rapid or slow onset influx of unscheduled acute visits, or the structural (flooded basements, loss of power) and operational (staffing, surge capacity) challenges to maintaining high quality operations.
Objectives
NQF will convene a multi-stakeholder committee to:
- Guide and provide input on an environmental scan of existing quality measures or measure concepts that focus on the readiness of hospitals, healthcare systems, and communities;
- Define the concept of readiness for hospitals, healthcare systems, and communities;
- Produce a measurement framework to help identify areas for measure development and gaps in healthcare system preparedness.
NQF Process
Over a 12 month period of performance, NQF will complete an environmental scan existing quality measures or measure concepts and develop a measurement framewok for healthcare system preparedness. Throughout this project, NQF will solicit input from NQF’s multistakeholder audience, including NQF membership and public stakeholders at key points throughout the project. NQF will produce a final report, which will include the finalized environmental scan, the multi-stakeholder committee’s discussion on the definition of readiness for hospitals, healthcare systems, and communities, the feasibility and strategy to focus future quality measurement on readiness, and the development of a measurement framework for assessing the readiness of hospitals, healthcare systems, and communities to respond to disasters and public health emergencies.
Funding
This project is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. For more information about the availability of auxiliary aids and services for NQF’s federally funded projects, please visit https://www.medicare.gov/about-us/nondiscrimination/accessibility-nondiscrimination.html.
Related NQF Work
Regionalized Emergency Medical Care Services: Phase 1 2012
Contact Information
For more information, please contact May Nacion or Poonam Bal at 202-783-1300 or via email at readiness@qualityforum.org.
Notes
1 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The National Health Security Preparedness Index: Summary of Key Findings. National Health Security Preparedness Index. https://nhspi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/NHSPI2017_Key-Findings_8_10.pdf. Published April 2017.
2 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Examining Challenges and Possible Strategies to Strengthen U.S. Health Security: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2018. https://www.nap.edu/read/24856/chapter/2.