Establishing health care performance standards in an era of consumerism

As the US health care system begins to reengineer itself to address the nee d for quality improvement, it also is being actively reshaped by the expect ations of consumers. The confluence of these forces requires a new approach to setting health care performance standards. The National Quality Forum ( NQF) has been established as a private, not-for-profit, open membership, pu blic benefit corporation for the purposes of developing consensus about sta ndardized health care performance measures, reporting mechanisms, and a nat ional strategy for health care quality improvement. The NQF has broad repre sentation from all segments of the health care industry and provides an equ itable way of addressing the disparate priorities of health care's many sta keholders. Agreement and implementation of standardized health care perform ance measures and achievement of quality improvement in the emerging era of consumerism will be facilitated by (1) establishing national goals for hea lth care quality; (2) embracing public policy that recognizes the complemen tary roles of quality improvement, cost control, and improved access; (3) g iving greater priority to measuring and reporting the performance of those aspects of the health care system that directly affect consumers; (4) focus ing on creating a health care culture of excellence; and (5) promoting the active collaboration of all stakeholders.