The NQF has endorsed a framework for public reporting of patient safety events. The framework provides guidance that will standardize an approach to capture and present information about a range of adverse events, from infections and medical complications to errors and accidents in the care process. The goal is to improve healthcare quality and safety through clear, easy-to-use public reports for consumers, providers, and healthcare systems. The framework provides seven guidelines that address issues to consider in patient safety event reporting such as how to convey low-frequency events, ways to protect patient confidentiality when reporting errors, and guidance on using data from trusted sources. The framework also offers guidance on designing and implementing public reports and provides strategies for displaying publicly reported data in a consumer-friendly way. Specific guidelines address the measures used in a public report, for example, measures used in a report should be meaningful to consumers, have transparent methodology, and meet rigorous, widely accepted criteria.
The NQF has also released an initial report focusing on prevention of health care-associated infections, recommending five HAI-related measures for endorsement. Measures recommended for endorsement includes outcomes measures for surgical site infections, urinary tract infections and central line-associated bloodstream infections.