Coordinated Care Saves Dollars and Lives, Reduces Errors

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To improve care for patients, reduce waste, and increase coordination within the fragmented U.S. healthcare system, the National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed 10 performance measures and 24 preferred practices for care coordination. The endorsement is a step toward achieving the goals of the care coordination priority area set out by the National Priorities Partnership to transform healthcare.

Poorly coordinated care often results in wasted healthcare dollars and worse care for patients. The average patient is passed between doctors approximately 15 times during a single five-day hospitalization, and taxpayers spend at least $15 billion each year treating Medicare patients who, due to poor coordination, get worse after discharge and must be readmitted.  

"Too many errors and too much waste occur within our system because of disjointed and poorly coordinated care," said Janet Corrigan, NQF president and CEO. "Patients and providers are hamstrung by a fragmented system that is difficult to navigate, doesn't produce the best outcomes, and is not organized around the patient. The NQF- endorsed^® practices and measures take a patient-centered approach to coordinating care, improving quality, and reducing errors."

The NQF-endorsed care coordination practices and measures focus on improved patient care and address communication, transitions, healthcare home, proactive plan of care and follow up, and information systems. Examples of endorsed preferred practices and measures include the following.

• Healthcare Home: The healthcare home or sponsoring organizations shall be the central point for incorporating strategies for continuity of care. (Preferred practice.)
• Proactive Plan of Care and Follow-up: The facility should measure the percentage of patients with a recent emergency room encounter for a transient cerebral ischemic event who had any physician visit within 14 days of the acute event. (Quality measure.)
• Communication: The patient's plan of care should always be made available to the healthcare home team, the patient, and the patient's designees. (Preferred practice.)
• Information Systems: An electronic record system should allow the patient's health data to be accessible to caregivers at all points of care. (Preferred practice.)
• Transitions: The facility should measure the percentage of patients discharged from an emergency department (ED) to ambulatory care or home healthcare, or their caregiver, who received a transition record at the time of ED discharge. (Quality measure.)

NQF's Steering Committee on care coordination was co-chaired by Gerri Lamb, PhD, RN, associate professor, Arizona State University College of Nursing & Health Innovation and visiting scholar, Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and Don Casey, MD, MBA, MPH, vice president of quality and chief medical officer at Atlantic Health.

"We must remember that patients and their families are the center of healthcare," said Lamb. "Improving transitions, planning for discharge, and coordinating care across settings and providers means better care for patients and ultimately, a safer, higher quality healthcare system."

"These practices and measures are an elegant framework for care coordination, which is a major priority of health system reform," said Dr. Casey. "Our patients need more seamless and patient-centered care that guarantees greater satisfaction and improved outcomes."

NQF is a voluntary consensus standards-setting organization. Any party may appeal the recommendations, in whole or in part, by notifying NQF in writing via e-mail no later than October 26, 2010 (appeals@qualityforum.org). For an appeal to be considered, the notification e-mail must include information clearly demonstrating that the appellant has interests that are directly and materially affected by the NQF-endorsed recommendations and that the NQF decision has had (or will have) an adverse effect on those interests.

Support for this project was provided by the WellPoint Foundation, Inc., the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and sanofi aventis.

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. NQF, a non-profit organization (www.qualityforum.org) with diverse stakeholders across the public and private health sectors, was established in 1999 and is based in Washington, DC.

SOURCE National Quality Forum

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