National Priorities Partnership Releases Recommendations: Broad, Multistakeholder Support for Aligning National Priorities in Healthcare

Set of eight national priorities offers significant opportunity for improving quality of care, affordability, and health

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Priorities Partnership (NPP) delivered their recommendations this week to Secretary Sebelius for a set of eight national priorities and goals: patient and family engagement, safety, care coordination, palliative and end-of-life care, equitable access, elimination of overuse, population health, and infrastructure supports. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contracted with the National Quality Forum to convene NPP to provide input on a proposed framework for the National Quality Strategy and offer recommendations for a set of national priorities and goals.

The National Priorities Partnership, convened by the National Quality Forum in 2007, is a diverse partnership of more than 40 stakeholders including private and public sector representatives at the national, state, and community level that is leveraging its collective influence to align public and private sector activities with the National Priorities and support their implementation.

"The NPP partners—each representing a distinct aspect of the healthcare arena—are uniquely positioned to help achieve these National Priorities and Goals, and fundamentally transform the nation's healthcare system," said Janet Corrigan, Ph.D., MBA, President and CEO of the National Quality Forum.  "We look forward to contributing to making quality healthcare a reality for every American."

The National Priorities Partnership

Chaired by two prominent national leaders in healthcare – Bernard Rosof, MD, chair of the American Medical Association-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, and Margaret E. O'Kane, president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance – the Partnership is a multistakeholder group including organizations representing the interests of consumers, purchasers, healthcare providers and professionals, state-based associations, community collaborative and regional alliances, government agencies, health plans, and accreditation and certification bodies, and supplier and industry groups.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the Secretary of HHS to "establish a National Strategy to improve the delivery of healthcare services, patient health outcomes, and population health," and to consult with the consensus-based entity with a contract under section 1890(a) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to obtain input on priorities for this National Quality Strategy, due to Congress by January 1, 2011.

HHS' Proposed Framework

HHS's proposed framework includes three pillars—better care, affordable care, and healthy people/healthy communities—that a set of national priorities and goals should address. Additionally, HHS identified four core principles to serve as a foundation for the National Quality Strategy and identified priorities and goals that should aim to improve: person-centeredness and family engagement; care for patients of all ages, populations, service locations, and sources of coverage; elimination of disparities in care; and opportunities for the alignment of public and private sectors.

NPP's Recommendations: Eight National Priorities and Goals

To address the framework and pillars identified by HHS, the National Priorities Partnership (NPP) recommends eight priority areas. NPP proposes the inclusion of its original six priority areas—patient and family engagement, population health, safety, care coordination, palliative and end-of-life care, and elimination of overuse—as a set of inextricably linked priorities to reinforce and amplify the framework and National Quality Strategy. NPP recommends augmenting these six priorities with two additional areas of focus particularly relevant in this era of health reform: equitable access to ensure that all patients have access to affordable, timely, and high-quality care; and infrastructure supports (e.g., health information technology) to address underlying system changes that will be necessary to attain the goals of the other priority areas.

"We finally have the beginnings of a national quality agenda and a foundation of work upon which to build," said O'Kane. "In the past, multiple separate agendas have haunted us, so the challenge will be to continue to offer alignment, synergy, and cohesive support. The NPP priorities that we have collectively been working on offer goals that are aspirational, actionable and aligned with efforts underway across the nation. That kind of collective leadership will be the way we achieve success in reducing harm and disease burden and eliminating disparities and waste."

NPP Partners Working Toward Implementation

The Partners – each representing a distinct voice in healthcare- are uniquely positioned to help achieve these National Priorities and Goals, and fundamentally transform the nation's healthcare system.

"NPP's initial framework was the result of a multistakeholder effort, and its results – both visionary and implementable - align with many aspects of health reform legislation," said Rosof.  "We believe NPP's collective efforts will provide an important starting point for the development of the Secretary's National Strategy. The National Priorities Partnership encompasses the diversity of representation needed to support real implementation and the diversity of knowledge needed to effectively improve the delivery system."

Read NPP's October 2010 report to the Secretary / More about NPP

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 (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