The Consolidation of Quality in Healthcare

Last week came the announcement that Janet Corrigan was appointed the leader of the new National Quality Forum. The original NQF was started during the Clinton Presidency (that is Bill Clinton not HRC) and chaired by Ken K. An interesting experiment in working to define standard measures of quality that actually matter and relate to real health outcomes. As it turns out, the NQF was particularly successful in developing standards and in securing endorsement from a variety of sponsor organizations, not the least of which is the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). The recent merger of the National Committee on Quality Health Care and NQF (March 3, 2006) in my mind signals two major trends to watch for:
1. Formal acceptance of standard measures of quality that are used by purchasers of healthcare to leverage positive change
2. Future consolidation in the quality measurement/management world as the technology of quality in healthcare moves out of the stone age and into the post-modern world.
The latter concept is key. We should expect to see not only consolidation of quality measurement organizations, but an increasing acceleration in the refinement of measures and the application of measures across the industry.

Whew, finally!