The Joint Commission journal on quality improvement
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Jt Comm J Qual Improv · Apr 1996
Phase II of the AHCPR-sponsored heart failure guideline: translating practice recommendations into review criteria.
In 1992, under the sponsorship of the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, RAND assembled an expert panel to develop the Heart Failure Clinical Practice Guideline. Phase II of the effort was intended to identify which of the guideline's recommendations the panel felt were suitable for use in retrospective utilization review and quality assessment programs and to develop review criteria, performance measures, and standards of quality for use in monitoring compliance with those recommendations. ⋯ Despite some reservations, physicians and other health care professionals agreed to be held accountable for following a core set of guideline recommendations for the treatment of heart failure. Substantial progress was made in identifying recommendations that panelists and reviewers were willing to endorse in utilization review activities, including adoption of improved documentation standards. The review criteria's major impact may be the knowledge that the criteria are in place and that care is being monitored based on those standards.
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Jt Comm J Qual Improv · Aug 1995
Increasing the impact of quality improvement on health: an expert panel method for setting institutional priorities.
Successful implementation of modern ongoing quality improvement (QI) methods requires investment of institutional resources, but can produce significant improvements in medical care. A health care organization's goals and objectives for improving care are expressed in strategic plan documents, which could provide a framework for planning quality improvement initiatives. However, institutional strategic planning processes are often not well linked to QI staff and resources. We developed the Quality Action Program (QAP) to connect QI to strategic planning. ⋯ Expert panel methods can be used to link strategic plan goals and objectives to QI efforts.