Reports

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Quality of Cancer Care
Few diseases carry the physical or emotional impact that accompanies a diagnosis of cancer. In 2006, approximately 565,000 Americans died of cancer, and an estimated 1.4 million Americans developed it. Although advancements have been made in quality accountability for other clinical areas, they have been lacking in cancer care. Currently, there exist relatively few commonly accepted measures of performance with respect to cancer treatments. More

Preferred Practices for Measuring and Reporting Patient Safety and Communication in Laboratory Medicine
For most patients, the clinical laboratory is an integral part of care. Laboratory charges occur for virtually all hospital admissions, and laboratory medicine affects nearly all patient care in all clinical settings. Many care decisions are based directly on information gleaned from laboratory results. Successful quality improvement efforts have focused on the analytic phases of laboratory testing, but efforts at continued quality improvement have focused less on the time directly before testing (the preanalytic phase) and after testing (the postanalytic phase). More

A Comprehensive Framework and Preferred Practices for Measuring and Reporting Cultural Competency
Equity is widely accepted as a core factor in improving healthcare. Yet, healthcare received by minority populations has been of poorer quality—even when factors such as access, health insurance, and income are taken into account. In order to reduce such disparities and improve outcomes, a number of healthcare organizations are exploring ways to improve cultural competency—that is, to ensure that diverse patient populations receive high-quality care that is safe, patient and family centered, evidence based, and equitable. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care 2007 — Guidelines for Consumer-Focused Public Reporting: A Consensus Report
In this era of transparency, many sources of information about the quality of healthcare exist, including “report cards” grading the performance of various healthcare providers. Many of these sources provide useful information to consumers to help them make decisions about their health and healthcare options, but in virtually all cases, there is room for improvement. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Influenza and Pneumococcal Immunizations
The incidence of serious illness and unnecessary hospitalizations resulting from seasonal influenza and pneumococcal disease could be significantly reduced through the use of immunizations across the healthcare system, including clinician practice settings, hospitals, nursing homes, and the home care setting. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Prevention and Care of Venous Thromboembolism: Additional Performance Measures
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the most common preventable cause of hospital death. Patients with risk factors for VTE can be identified, and effective strategies are available to prevent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism--the diseases that comprise VTE. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care 2007: Performance Measures
Performance measurement and public reporting are now "standard practice" in the nation's nearly 6,000 acute care hospitals. This report identifies 44 new national voluntary consensus standards for hospital care. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Ambulatory Care Part I & II
Patients in the United States receive most of their healthcare in ambulatory care settings. However, there is a lack of agreed-upon quality measures aimed at assessing the performance of ambulatory care providers. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Ambulatory Care: Specialty Clinician Performance Measures
To date, NQF has endorsed a large number of clinician-level measures for ambulatory care. However, Few of the endorsed measures, address care provided by specialists. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Ambulatory Care—Measuring Healthcare Disparities
All Americans should receive quality healthcare, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, insurance status, or gender. Unfortunately, significant healthcare disparities based on these characteristics persist and in some cases are getting worse. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Specialty Clinician Performance Measures
In the past several years, the public reporting of healthcare quality information has blossomed. However, not all aspects of care in the ambulatory setting have benefited equally from measure development and use. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for the Reporting of Healthcare-associated Infection Data
Approximately 20 states now require healthcare providers to report infection-related data. Sixteen states make these reports available to the public. More

Establishing a Patient-Centered National Action Plan for Deep Vein Thrombosis Prevention, Treatment, and Research
On March 24, 2006, the National Quality Forum hosted a summit, "Establishing a Patient-Centered National Action Plan for Deep Vein Thrombosis Prevention, Treatment, and Research," in Washington, DC.  More

CEO Survival Guide™ Personal Health Records
Personal Health Record (PHR) systems offer great promise to create a more patient-centered healthcare system, and to improve patient safety and quality and reduce costs.  More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for the Treatment of Substance Use Conditions: Evidence-Based Treatment Practices
Over the past 15 years, it has become clear that substance use conditions are in many ways like other chronic health conditions, which require long-term management. More

Tracking NQF-Endorsed Consensus Standards for Nursing-Sensitive Care: A 15-Month Study
In 2004, NQF published a report documenting the development of consensus standards for nursing-sensitive care.  Until recently, the degree to which these consensus standards have been adopted was unclear.  More

Safe Practices for Better Healthcare 2006 Update
In 2003, the National Quality Forum (NQF) endorsed 30 safe practices that should be universally utilized in applicable clinical care setting to reduce the risk of error and resultant harm to patient... More

Serious Reportable Events in Healthcare 2006 Update
In 2002, the National Quality Forum (NQF) published Serious Reportable Events in Healthcare: A Consensus Report. Since then several healthcare error reporting systems have been launched with a sizable number of states and governmental entities, collectively covering about 80 million lives, using the initial NQF list of 27 serious reportable events. More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Additional Priority Areas 2005-2006 Pneumonia Mortality Supplement
In 2003, a milestone was reached when the National Quality Forum endorsed and published 39 voluntary consensus standards for hospital care in 8 priority areas...More

A National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality
Palliative Care and hospice services have become an increasingly crucial part of the healthcare system...More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Prevention and Care of Venous Thromboembolism: Policy, Preferred Practices, and Initial Performance Measures
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the most common preventable cause of hospital death in the United States…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care: 2005 Update
In 2002, NQF formally endorsed performance measures developed by the National Diabetes Quality Improvement Alliance as voluntary consensus standards…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Additional Priority Areas--2005-2006
Through its various projects NQF has endorsed 69 voluntary consensus standards for measuring the performance of acute care hospitals…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Ambulatory Care: An Initial Physician-Focused Performance Measure Set
More than a billion visits to physician offices and hospital outpatient and emergency departments take place each year…More

Compendium 2000-2005
In 1998, a Presidential Commission recommended the creation of a national forum in which healthcare’s many stakeholders could, together, find ways to improve the quality and safety of American healthcare…More

CMS–NQF Conference: Implementing NQF-Endorsed Consensus Standards
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and NQF have both developed strategies to champion quality improvement…More

Standardizing a Patient Safety Taxonomy
Although efforts to identify and report information related to patient safety have multiplied, the healthcare system still has no standardized framework for classifying the data…More

Standardizing a Measure of Patient Perspectives of Hospital Care
Measuring and publicly reporting the quality of hospital care from the patient’s perspective is a high priority for patients…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Home Health Care
This report presents the 15 NQF-endorsed consensus standards for home health care…More

Improving Use of Prescription Medications: A National Action Plan
Despite the impressive advances in pharmaceutical science and technology, too many patients do not receive the benefits of drugs that have been prescribed to them…More

Evidence-Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders
Scientific knowledge of effective, evidence-based therapies to treat people with substance use disorders has increased substantially; unfortunately, the increase in knowledge has not been accompanied by consistent implementation of proven methods of treatment…More

Pay-for-Performance Programs: Guiding Principles and Design Strategies
One of the strategies that is now poised to substantially restructure payment for healthcare in the United States involves linking payment to compliance with evidence-based clinical guidelines…More

Improving Patient Safety Through Informed Consent for Patients with Limited Health Literacy
This report presents the results of an NQF study that examined implementation of Safe Practice 10, which focused on informed consent and patient safety…More

Implementing a National Voluntary Consensus Standard for Informed Consent: A User's Guide for Healthcare Professionals
Based on interviews and site visits with facilities that had adopted Safe Practice 10 and those that had not, NQF has developed a User's Guide to assist organizations with implementation…More

Integrating Behavioral Healthcare Performance Measures Throughout Healthcare Workshop Proceedings
The summit, held June 29, 2004, in Washington, DC, brought together a diverse group of behavioral healthcare experts and other healthcare leaders to discuss what is needed to spur widespread integration of measures…More

Hospital Governing Boards and Quality of Care: A Call to Responsibility
As a follow-up to a March 2004 meeting, a "Call to Responsibility" was developed that calls on hospital governing boards to review their policies and practices…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Cardiac Surgery
This report presents the 21 NQF-endorsed consensus standards for cardiac surgery…More

National Priorities for Healthcare Quality Measurement and Reporting
This report presents the 23 NQF-endorsed priorities for healthcare quality measurement and reporting…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing-Sensitive Care: An Initial Performance Measure Set
This report presents 15 measures to promote public accountability and quality improvement…More

Child Healthcare Quality Measurement and Reporting
This report summarizes the deliberations and recommendations of a workshop that assessed the needs for performance measures and quality indicators in children's healthcare…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing Home Care
This report details quality measures endorsed by the NQF's 200-plus Member organizations through its formal Consensus Development Process. CMS will use the 16 NQF-endorsed to collect information…More

Information Technology and Healthcare: Proceedings of a Summit
This report discusses how facilitating collaboration among the many stakeholders can advance efforts to identify and support a comprehensive electronic information infrastructure…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: An Initial Performance Measure Set
This report presents 39 measures to promote public accountability and quality improvement…More

Reaching the Tipping Point: Measuring and Reporting Quality Using the NQF-Endorsed Hospital Care Measures
This report presents a range of recommendations to spur implementation of the 39 NQF-endorsed national voluntary consensus standards for hospital care…More

Safe Practices for Better Healthcare
This report details 30 healthcare safe practices that should be universally utilized in applicable clinical care settings to reduce the risk of harm to patients…More

A Comprehensive Framework for Hospital Care Performance Evaluation
This report provides a road map for directing hospital care performance measure selection and standardized reporting of performance data…More

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care
The NQF has endorsed as voluntary consensus standards a set of performance measures for adult diabetes care for both accountability and quality improvement purposes…More

A National Framework for Healthcare Quality Measurement and Reporting: A Consensus Report
This report, developed as part of the NQF project on national voluntary consensus standards for hospital care, established a comprehensive framework and standardized process for hospital quality measurement and reporting…More

Improving Healthcare Quality for Minority Patients: Workshop Summary
The NQF assessed healthcare quality metrics specific to minority populations because of the significant disparities that persist in health and healthcare outcomes for minority populations in the United States…More

Serious Reportable Events in Healthcare: A Consensus Report
The NQF has identified and endorsed a set of serious preventable adverse events in healthcare that can be used to standardize data collection and reporting of these events within and across states…More