Access the Report: Environmental Scan and Analysis to Inform the Action Guide (PDF)
The Opportunity
The National Quality Strategy (NQS) prioritizes community efforts and interventions to improve social, economic, and environmental factors that impact health, yet quality improvement and measurement have been overwhelmingly focused on the clinical care system. Evidence suggests that with a quarter of healthcare costs related to modifiable health risks, programs and policies that improve wellness and healthy behaviors could yield a net savings of $19 billion over 10 years.1
It has never been more important to understand how communities can work with the public health and clinical care systems to collaboratively improve population health. Shared definitions and a common conceptual framework are needed to ensure better coordination and advance community partnerships. This project will allow NQF—through a multistakeholder, collaborative process—to develop a common framework for communities that will offer practical guidance on questions such as:
- How can individuals and multistakeholder groups come together to address community health improvement?
- Which individuals and organizations should be at the table?
- What processes and methods should communities use to assess their health?
- What data are available to assess, analyze, and address community health needs, and measure improvement?
- What incentives exist that can drive alignment and coordination to improve community health?
- How can communities advance more affordable care by achieving greater alignment, efficiency, and cost savings?
The framework will identify key drivers of population health across communities; identify opportunities to align federal programs and public- and private-sector programs to reduce measurement burden; and identify measures to fill gaps associated with population health and affordability.
Project Funding
This project is funded under NQF’s contract with the Department of Health and Human Services.
For information about the availability of auxiliary aids and services for NQF’s federally funded projects, please visit: http://www.medicare.gov/about-us/nondiscrimination/nondiscrimination-notice.html.
Related NQF Work
Contact Information
For further information NQF’s Population Health Framework project, contact Kim Ibarra at 202-783-1300 or via email populationhealth@qualityforum.org.
Footnote:
1. Schoen C, Guterman, S, Bending the Curve: Options for Achieving Savings and Improving Value in US Health Spending. The Commonwealth Fund; 2007.