Mission

Advances in the science of quality measurement, in health information systems, and in our understanding of how to effect change in clinical practice present unprecedented opportunities for improvement. Quality measurement and reporting is a powerful mechanism to drive quality improvement. Health care consumers, purchasers, and providers all have an interest in building capacity for quality improvement and measurement. Consumers and purchasers need reliable, comparative data to buy value in health care and to generate market demand for quality. Providers also need comparative data to design improvement programs and compare their performance against regional and national benchmarks.

Mission Statement

The mission of the National Quality Forum is to improve the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs. 

Strategic Goals

1. NQF-endorsed™ standards will become the primary standards used to measure the quality of healthcare in the United States;
2. NQF will be the principal body that endorses national healthcare performance measures, quality indicators and/or quality of care standards;
3. NQF will increase the demand for high quality healthcare; and
4. NQF will be recognized as a major driving force for and facilitator of continuous quality improvement of American healthcare quality.

Organizational Goals

The specific goals of NQF are to:

1. Promote collaborative efforts to improve the quality of the nation's healthcare through performance measurement and public reporting;
2. Develop a national strategy for measuring and reporting healthcare quality;
3. Standardize healthcare performance measures so that comparable data is available across the nation (i.e., establish national voluntary consensus standards);
4. Promote consumer understanding and use of healthcare performance measures and other quality information; and
5. Promote and encourage the enhancement of system capacity to evaluate and report on healthcare quality.