National Quality Forum endorses new voluntary health IT standards

The National Quality Forum (NQF) announced August 29 that it has endorsed nine new national voluntary consensus standards for health information technology (IT). 

 

The new standards are in the areas of EHR interoperability, electronic prescribing, care management, quality registries, and the medical home (a broad model of primary care that aims to improve quality by providing coordinated, effective, continuous, patient-centered care).

 

NQF said in its press release that its goals are to improve quality and efficiency while reducing errors and unnecessary treatments.

 

“If we hope to achieve high-quality, patient-centered care, we need interoperable HIT that can help us share information electronically and track patients throughout the delivery system—all of which can reduce errors and overuse and increase measurement across the continuum of care,” NQF President and CEO Janet Corrigan said in the press release. “These newly endorsed measures can provide important information on effective use of health IT for both early adopters of HIT and those who are just beginning to implement HIT systems.” 

 

The NQF describes itself as a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities for performance improvement and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.

 

Click here to read the NQF press release.