Useful Quality and Safety Web Sites
Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America's health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded. Among other initiatives, Leapfrog works with its employer members to encourage transparency and easy access to health care information as well as rewards for hospitals that have a proven record of high quality care.
SafetyLeaders.org
This Web site is devoted to sharing best practices for safety across the health care system. It also brings together the major stakeholders for patient safety at the national level to articulate and promote consistent measurement.
National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
NCQA is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. Since its founding in 1990, NCQA has been a central figure in driving improvement throughout the health care system, helping to elevate the issue of health care quality to the top of the national agenda.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
This is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1991 leading the improvement of health care throughout the world. The Institute helps accelerate change in health care by cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care and turning those ideas into action.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicare, Medicaid, related quality assurance programs, and other programs. CMS ensures that its policies and actions promote efficiency and quality within the total health care delivery system.
National Quality Forum (NQF)
NQF is a not-for-profit membership organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting.
Joint Commission
An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
Cal Hospital Compare
This Web site is the result of a partnership between three independent organizations dedicated to improving health care quality: The California HealthCare Foundation, the University of California at San Francisco Institute for Health Policy Studies, and the California Hospitals Assessment and Reporting Taskforce (CHART). This site includes ratings for clinical care, patient safety, and patient experience for the more than 200 hospitals in California that have chosen to participate in this important voluntary project.