This page describes a crosswalk of how ASHP leadership efforts directly align with national healthcare improvement. Examples are listed of how ASHP supports the National Quality Forum’s(NQF) National Priorities Partnership(NPP) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations(CMMI) Centers Partnership for Patients(PfP).

For more information on these two initiatives please visit the following:

• Partnership for Patients
• National Priorities Partnership

The National Priorities Partnership is a multistakeholder partnership convened by the national quality forum to provide input to HHS on how best to achieve the goals of a National Quality Strategy (NQS). The overarching three part aims of the national quality strategy are to make care safe, effective and affordable.  NQF was requested by the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to better optimize implementation strategies and quality improvement measures around the three part aim of the national quality strategy, and to make the strategy more actionable and measureable.

In order to improve Patient Safety across the nation HHS has developed the Partnership for Patients through the CMS innovation center  to engage entities in the public and private sectors to reduce preventable harm through reductions in hospital acquired conditions and hospital admission and readmissions with the following targeted goals.

• To reduce readmissions to hospitals by 20% by 2013 compared to 2010
• To reduce hospital acquired conditions and adverse drug events by 40% by 2013 compared to 2010

The national quality strategy has 6 priority domains that the National Quality Forum has deemed to be measureable. The six national quality strategy priorities are as follows:

1. Work with communities to promote wide use of best practices to enable healthy living and well-being
2. Promote the most effective prevention, treatment and intervention practices for the leading causes of mortality, starting with cardiovascular disease
3. Ensure person-and family-centered care
4. Make care safer through the following
1. Reduce preventable hospital admissions and readmissions
2. Reduce the incidence of adverse healthcare-associated conditions
3. Reduce harm from inappropriate or unnecessary care
5. Promote effective communication and care coordination through the following
1. Improve the quality of care transitions and communications across care settings
2. Improve the quality of life for patients with chronic illness and disability by following a current care plan that anticipates and addresses pain and symptom management, psychosocial needs, and functional status.
3. Establish shared accountability and integration of communities and healthcare systems to improve quality of care and reduce health disparities.
6. Make quality care affordable for people, families, employers, and governments

ASHP has a compendium of resources to support its members in pursuing the goals of the National Quality Strategy through the methodology outlined by the National Priorities Partnership and the Partnership for Patients. These resources are listed below as

• Real world examples of transformational change in local environments
• ASHP best practices that support the NQS and PfP
• Additional ASHP resources that align with the NQS.

ASHP’s official statement on the health-systems pharmacist’s role in national health care quality initiatives can be found at Health-System Pharmacists Role in National Health Care Quality Initiatives [PDF].