Health Care Quality
To achieve value, a reformed health care system must improve patient health outcomes and increase patient satisfaction, while decreasing errors, waste and cost. ANA strongly supports the six goals of the Institute of Medicine for a quality health care system: 1) safe, 2) effective, 3) patient-centered, 4) timely, 5) efficient; and 6) equitable. (See IOM Report - Crossing the Quality Chasm link below)
A growing body of research has established a relationship between quality of care, patient safety and the adequacy of nurse staffing (See Safe Staffing Saves Lives Web site icon to the right).
ANA supports efforts to identify and develop nursing-sensitive indicators – patient outcomes that can be tied to nursing services -- through its National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®, See link below). NDNQI’s mission is to improve patient safety and the quality of nursing care through the use of data that can be compared at the unit level, hospital by hospital.
National Priorities Partnership
As one of 28 partner stakeholders, ANA endorses the quality initiatives outlined by the National Priorities Partnership convened by the National Quality Forum. The partnership is a coalition of health care organizations working toward health system change that incorporates these priorities:
- Engage patients and families in managing their health and making decisions about their care.
- Improve the health of the population.
- Improve the safety and reliability of America’s healthcare system.
- Ensure patients receive well-coordinated care within and across all health care organizations, settings, and levels of care.
- Guarantee appropriate and compassionate care for patients with life-limiting illnesses.
- Eliminate overuse while ensuring the delivery of appropriate care.
ANA also supports:
- Comparative effectiveness research, which evaluates how different treatment therapies for a certain health condition compare to each other. ANA advocates for identifying how the work of nurses can be factored into studies aimed at improving patients’ health and evaluating patient outcomes (See link below).
- The development of a national health information technology framework that allows the identification of trends and system-wide concerns, as well as providing individual health care professionals with feedback by which they can improve their practice.