Reimagining A Quality Information System For US Health Care
David Lansky JANUARY 25, HealthAffairs Forefront
Why The Current Measurement Has Failed
A series of specific design decisions led to today’s inadequate and frustrating measurement enterprise. First, US policy makers decided not to empower a public interest governance mechanism (proposed to be modeled on the Securities and Exchange Commission) and instead permitted weak informal structures (for example, the National Quality Forum, Joint Commission, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology [ONC]), dominated by industry and professional interests, to determine how we evaluate quality of care. Instead of a uniform national approach, each agency, certification body, and commercial payer constructs its own measurement and reporting process to serve its own interests, with wide variability in specifications, methods, and measures, and no shared public interest imperative to improve health outcomes.
