The National Priorities Partnership—a diverse group of national organizations convened by the National Quality Forum (NQF)—has released an action agenda to transform healthcare during a time of severe economic strain by better investing resources to fundamentally improve patient care and outcomes. The National Priorities Partnership represents those who receive, pay for, deliver, and evaluate healthcare.
“The Priorities allow us to focus our collective efforts around areas that have the greatest potential for substantial improvements,” said Janet Corrigan, NQF president and CEO. “But setting the Priorities is just the first step. The harder part is still to come—taking real actions, even if they are difficult, to achieve the ambitious goals set by the Partnership. NQF has begun work to align around the Priorities, and I am proud that so many individual organizations are already aligning their activities around the Priorities and identifying ways in which they can act to achieve the Goals.”
With each member of the National Priorities Partnership wielding influence over major portions of healthcare delivery, the coalition has the power to set in motion a national movement to deliver transformative improvements to America’s health and healthcare system. “The key to our success will be focusing on the right places in our vast and fragmented system where we can achieve the biggest dividends for patients and their families. It is reform from the inside out—where it has the best chance to succeed,” declared co-chair and Institute for Healthcare Improvement CEO Donald Berwick.
The set of six cross-cutting Priorities target reform in ways that will eliminate waste, harm, and disparities to create and expand world-class, patient-centered, affordable healthcare. The Priorities are patient and family engagement, population health, safety, care coordination, palliative and end-of-life care, and overuse.
“The National Quality Forum is proud to be both a member of the Partnership and the convener of this effort,” said Corrigan. “We have not forgotten that ‘quality’ is our middle name, and we believe working together to achieve the Priorities is the right path toward truly improving the quality of America’s healthcare.” To read the report, please visit http://www.nationalprioritiespartnership.org/.
