1. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages pediatric providers to identify areas of improvement, engage the patient population, and utilize established quality measures in an effort to better integrate quality improvement into their practice.
2. The AAP also supports national policy makers in effort to further fund, expand, and otherwise support the development and application of quality improvement measures in pediatric medicine and child health.
Policy Rundown: Over the last decade and a half, value in health care has emerged as a major issue as healthcare costs rise and payers begin shifting towards payment programs linked to quality. With this shift, there is an ever-increasing focus on quality improvement. Although there are pediatric-specific advances in this field, the breadth and depth of quality measures is less than that of the adult world. As such, the AAP has issued a policy statement regarding the development and application of quality improvement measures. Specifically, pediatric health care providers are urged to assess areas in their practice for improvement, engage patients in this task, educate themselves, and create quality-improvement goals. In addition, general providers are encouraged to participate in collaborative care networks to better measure, assess, and disseminate quality improvement interventions in practice. National policymakers are urged to increase state and federal investments in the development of pediatric-appropriate quality improvement measures. Furthermore, fiscal incentives are needed to support data reporting on the state and local level. The dissemination and utilization of existing validated pediatric quality measures are also encouraged. In the meantime, the use of adult-based measures for assessment of child health is discouraged. Finally, quality improvement measures should be aligned across state and federal reporting programs and government maternal/child health and social service programs.
Click to read the policy statement, published today in Pediatrics
Relevant Reading: Identifying children’s health care quality measures for Medicaid and CHIP: an evidence-informed, publicly transparent expert process
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