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NQF issues quality guidance to hospital boards

Quality Improvement Monitor, March 17, 2005

The National Quality Forum (NQF) provides guidance to hospital boards of trustees about their responsibility for overseeing the quality of care delivered in their institutions in an article published in the March Trustee magazine.

Derived from a policy statement approved by the NQF Board of Directors last December, the article makes clear that hospital trustees have responsibility for ensuring the quality of clinical care provided in their institutions. The responsibility cannot be delegated to a quality committee of the board or the medical staff, the article said, meaning many boards will have to become much more involved in quality issues and become more clinically literate.

The NQF's Call to Responsibility presents four principles for hospital boards to follow, with specific strategies for each principle. The principles say hospital boards should

  • take concrete steps to fulfill their role in ensuring quality
  • enable effective evaluation of their own role in enhancing quality
  • develop "quality literacy" regarding patient safety, clinical care, and healthcare outcomes
  • oversee and be accountable for their institutions' participation and performance in national quality measurement efforts and subsequent quality improvement activities.

A full-text version of the call is available on the NQF's Web site, www.qualityforum.org.

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