The Opportunity

In 2012, approximately half of all U.S. adults had one or more chronic health conditions and one-quarter of adults had two or more.¹ In the following year, the top three most costly conditions were chronic in nature.² The burden of infectious diseases is also great. Infectious diseases remain a leading cause of death in the U.S. and account for 3.9 million hospital visits each year.³ The U.S. spends more than $120 billion annually to treat infectious disease.⁴ Effective quality measures are critically important to national efforts to improve prevention and treatment of chronic and infectious illnesses and healthcare outcomes.

NQF Related Work

• Infectious Disease  – 2017
• Eye Care, Ear, Nose and Throat Conditions Off Cycle Measure Review 2017 – 2017
• Eye Care, Ear, Nose and Throat Conditions  – 2016
• NQF-Endorsed Measures for Musculoskeletal Conditions – 2015
• Endocrine Measures Final Report Cycle II – 2015
• NQF Endorsed Measures for Endocrine Conditions – 2015
• Endocrine Measures Final Report Cycle III – 2015
• Endocrine Measures Final Report Cycle I – 2014
• Infectious Disease Endorsement Maintenance – 2013
• Pulmonary and Critical Care Consensus Standards Endorsement Maintenance – 2013

Stay Connected

For more information, please contact primarycare@qualityforum.org.

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Chronic disease overview website. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/index.htm. Last accessed September 2017.

2 Dieleman J. US spending on personal health care and public health, 1996-2013. JAMA. 2016;316(24):2627-2646.

3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National Center for Health Statistics FastStats infectious disease website. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/infectious-disease.htm. Last accessed April 2017.

4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National Center for Health Statistics FastStats infectious disease website. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/infectious-disease.htm. Last accessed April 2017.