Home

  • Home
    • » e-Newsletters

NQF endorses voluntary consensus standards for ambulatory care

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, August 9, 2005

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has announced its endorsement of a set of National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Ambulatory Care, intended to provide a standardized set of measure for gauging and publicly reporting the quality of ambulatory care, according to a press release from the NQF.

The measures could be used by Congress to eventually develop pay-for-performance guidelines for physicians under Medicare.

The standards-designed with the consensus of 260 healthcare providers, consumer groups, professional associations, purchasers, federal agencies, and research and quality improvement organizations-are physician focused. They include 36 performance measures and three recommendations.

The standards are the outcome of the second phase of NQF's Ambulatory Care Project, designed to identify a set of ambulatory care standards from a set of measures submitted by three research and quality improvement organizations.

"These standards represent a measure of structure, process, and outcome that have been linked by evidence to quality of care for ambulatory care," according to the release.

To read the NQF's statement, click here.

Most Popular