HEALTHCARE
www.abqaurp.org
The American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians (ABQAURP) offers certification and education to healthcare professionals. Its website features ABQAURP events listings, news, information on certification and membership, and the online version of ABQAURPs journal, Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare.
www.ahrq.gov
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) was established by Congress to improve healthcare quality and fund health services research. Through its search engine, AHRQ’s website provides consumers with research based information on what kinds of treatments work best for various diseases and injuries.
www.bhpr.hrsa.gov/dqa
This page, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, houses three separate information resources--the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) and the Federal Credentialing Program (FCP). The NPDB contains information on adverse licensure actions, clinical privileges actions and professional society membership actions taken against physicians and dentists. The HIPDB collects data on healthcare fraud and abuse. The FCP promotes the sharing of healthcare professionals' credentials.
www.bridgemedical.com
Through software and service, Bridge Medical is trying to improve healthcare industry quality by focusing on patient safety, data analysis, education and elimination of medical errors. Its website contains news about developing technology and upcoming events, as well as a free e-mail newsletter, The Point of Care. Most of what Bridge Medical deals with involves the continuing development of the use of barcode technology to reduce error.
www.doctorquality.com
DoctorQuality.com is a new Internet based quality benefits management company. Its Web site includes a location for consumers to rate doctors or place anonymous reports of medical errors, a location for doctors to submit data and links to many other healthcare quality resources.
www.facct.org
The Foundation for Accountability (FACCT) is an organization that helps Americans make better healthcare decisions. FACCT believes the ability to create a more responsive healthcare system depends on informed, motivated consumers. Included on the site are pages devoted to measuring adults' and children's healthcare quality, educating consumers about quality and collecting quality data.
www.healthchoices.org
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accredits and certifies healthcare organizations. This site tells consumers how to select a health plan based on NCQA's ratings related to access and service, qualified providers, staying healthy, getting better and living with illness.
www.hmogroup.com
This Web site is the home page of the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP). The site includes a detailed section on benchmarks in quality and safety, a standards program that ACHP says “sets an expectation that health plans will pursue broad improvement goals in specific areas responsible for poor health in a significant area of the community.”
www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov
The Hospital Quality Alliance regularly updates this website, which compares data from about 4,000 participating hospitals. Users can compare hospitals on 18 quality measures, such as heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia care.
www.hschange.org
The mission of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) is to inform healthcare decision makers about changes in the healthcare system at both the local and national levels and the effects of such changes on people. HSC says it seeks to provide objective analyses that lead to policy and management decisions, with the ultimate goal of improving the health of the American public. Issues covered include costs, market trends and access to care.
www.ihi.org
The not-for-profit Institute for healthcare Improvement (IHI) provides resources and services to help organizations improve outcomes and lower costs. The site offers information on IHI publications, programs and collaborations. The resources cover a wide range, including the design of clinical office practices, a Chronic Conditions National Congress, patient safety, reduction of medical errors, and innovations in delivery and practice.
www.improvementskills.org
The Healthcare Improvement Skills Center was developed by several academic institutions and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Among the features are healthcare quality improvement modules that use tools such as the plan-do-study-act cycle, Pareto charts and checklists. Membership, which is required to view some of the site’s features, is free.
www.irsst.qc.ca
L'Institut de recherche Robert-SauvŽ en santŽ et en sŽcuritŽ du travail (occupational health and safety research institute) contributes, through research, to the prevention of occupational injuries and diseases and the rehabilitation of affected workers. The Institute supports its occupational health and safety partners by providing information, expertise and tools.
www.jcaho.org
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), a nonprofit group, accredits nearly 20,000 organizations in the United States. Its site provides a search function to determine whether a facility is accredited, information on how to become accredited, a monthly electronic newsletter, other JCAHO news and a feature that allows consumers to lodge complaints against organizations.
www.jcipatientsafety.org
The Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety has designed a website to serve as a major central resource for information related to all aspects of patient safety. Its content can be used by patients, employers, physicians, nurses and pharmacists––as well as all types of healthcare organizations worldwide. The website features a tool for users to search by zip code for specific quality reports of healthcare facilities within their own states.
www.medicare.gov
The official government site for Medicare customers features home health and nursing home comparisons based on various quality measures. For each facility in the extensive directory, Medicare certified agencies collect information about patients’ health, skilled care, support services and living conditions. Users may then locate facilities in their area and compare them. For example, a search for facilities in the Pittsburgh area that offer occupational therapy results in 63 matching facilities that can be compared based on 11 quality measures. The site also offers PDF checklists for users to bring with tem when they are visiting healthcare facilities.
www.medqic.org
To assist quality improvement organizations, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have established Medicare Quality Improvement Community (MedQIC), a website for public use. The site supports quality improvement in nursing homes, home health agencies, hospitals and physician offices. Registration is free.
www.nahq.org
The National Association for Healthcare Quality is an organization for healthcare quality professionals. The site provides a job mart, links to publications, awards and conferences and information on healthcare quality certifications.
www.nchc.org
The National Coalition on Health Care is a nonprofit alliance of about 100 groups dedicated to achieving affordable healthcare for Americans. It lists business, labor, consumer and primary care provider groups as members. The site features many policy studies, including one on reducing medical errors and improving safety.
www.ncqa.org
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of healthcare. This website features understandable and free information for employers and consumers. The organization also generates feedback that helps physicians, health plans and others identify areas for improvement and make changes to improve the quality of patient care.
www.npsf.org
The homepage of the National Patient Safety Foundation provides information on educational conferences, research programs and publications about patient safety. Click on "resources" to find a bibliography, discussion forum, online fact sheets and links to other patient safety organizations and resources.
www.nist.gov/public_affairs/healthcare.htm
This National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) site offers information on quality in healthcare in a number of areas such as screening and prevention, diagnostics and treatments, delivery, efficiency and help for manufacturers. The site describes work done by NIST in the healthcare arena, research grants and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award's healthcare category.
www.patientsafety.org
Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) is a nonprofit organization that campaigns for research and laws protecting healthcare consumers. Its website offers information about CAPS, as well as free patient safety news, papers, reports, links and online discussions.
psnet.ahrq.gov
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality offers this Patient Safety Network website for healthcare providers, administrators and consumers who want to learn about patient safety. The website features journal articles, a healthcare quality glossary and weekly updates on patient safety findings.
www.qsrhelp.com/forum/index.html
This Medical Device Forum is a place for medical device industry professionals to share ideas, discuss current issues or seek solutions regarding the design, manufacture or regulation of medical devices. The forum is conveniently divided into various topics, including engineering and design, federal register notices, production and process control, and regulatory affairs.
www.qualityforum.org
The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a not-for-profit membership organization for healthcare professionals. Members are currently recruiting hospitals to voluntarily use the standards they're developing for measuring and reporting healthcare quality. This portion of the NQF website provides a free look at those experimental standards and news on current NQF projects.
www.qualityhealthcare.org/qhc
Established by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, this not-for-profit site provides information and discussion groups covering the latest developments in healthcare quality. Free registration gives users access to newsletters, e-mail updates, networking forums, feedback opportunities and downloads. One valuable registration benefit is a downloadable improvement tracker, a tool organizations can use to document healthcare improvement projects, collect data and keep track of changes over time.
www.talkingquality.gov
This site is designed to help consumer advocates, state officials and benefit managers educate their audiences about healthcare quality. It’s maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The website includes step-by-step instructions on how to implement a quality measurement and reporting project, as well as a “Planning Workbook,” a downloadable resource for developing customized plans to present quality healthcare information.
www.urac.org
The Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC) promotes improvement in healthcare quality by establishing standards, educational programs and an accreditation process. Its website provides extensive information on all URAC accreditations, including case management, claims processing, health website and vendor certification. URAC, a nonprofit organization, charges for its accreditations, but the explanations of accreditations on the website are useful and free.
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