Driving for Quality in Acute Care: A Board of Directors Dashboard Government-Industry Roundtable

摘要

On November 10, 2008, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) cosponsored a government industry roundtable called Driving for Quality in Acute Care: A Board of Directors Dashboard. The meeting was the most recent in a series of government industry discussions designed to foster dialogue between the various stakeholders that are committed to improving compliance to Federal health care program rules and requirements and promoting the care of beneficiaries. This roundtable focused on how a hospital's board of directors can use performance scorecards, or dashboards as a tool to promote quality of care in its institution. Dashboard reports use graphics to concisely present critical data in summary form. The goal of the meeting was to encourage a dialogue among hospitals that have successfully implemented dashboards, as well as hospitals that are just beginning the effort. The meeting also provided a forum for government representatives (including staff members of OIG and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)) to share their perspectives on the issues and challenges surrounding quality of care. This article reports on the day's proceedings and summarizes the participants' views on information dashboards as well as their suggestions for using them to improve quality.