The major healthcare regulatory agencies require hospitals to follow Performance Improvement programs. The Report to Congress sets national initiatives for quality and performance improvement programs. The Joint Commission evaluates hospitals on major quality-related areas called Core Measures and Accountability Measures.

The Affordable Care Act seeks to increase access to high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. To that end, the law requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care (the National Quality Strategy) that sets priorities to guide this effort and includes a strategic plan for how to achieve it.

Understanding how the government requires hospitals to manage quality performance leads to better insights into the need for rigorous performance improvement programs.

Instructions

• For this assignment, review Chapters 1 and 2 of the course textbook and the Supporting Lesson Links for the “Report to Congress: National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care” and “the Joint Commission Website. You should also include your own outside research (at least one additional source).
• Evaluate the effectiveness of national policy and regulatory agencies’ efforts that require hospitals to follow Performance Improvement programs. Be sure to include the following elements:
• Introduction: Why are quality improvement programs important to healthcare?
• Body: Answer the following questions:

  Summarize how the Report to Congress relates to the Core Requirements of the Institute of Medicine described in the text Introduction. Are the focus areas compatible or do they become too confusing? Do you think they are helpful for hospitals that need to plan for quality improvement, or do you think they are asking too much?
  Compare the Joint Commission’s Core Measures and Accountability Measures: do you agree with the “retiring” of certain Core Measures, or would you keep them in place?
  Evaluate how the regulatory requirements related to the Organization-wide Performance Improvement Process described in Figure 1.1 in the text. How does the Process described in Figure 1.1 fit into a hospital’s efforts to manage quality?
  Conclusion: Summarize your evaluation of the government’s effectiveness in guiding hospital quality efforts. Does the American Hospital Association support these efforts?

• Your paper should be a minimum of three pages (excluding cover and reference pages)
• Write the paper in APA style with in-text citations as appropriate.
• Be sure to address all of the elements described in the assignment. Include at least one additional outside reference in addition to your textbook and the Required Resources articles.