HHS releases report on quality improvement

The federal Health & Human Services Department released this week its National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care (Source: “HHS publishes strategy to improve national healthcare quality,” Government Health IT, March 21, 2011).

The report from HHS call for promoting health care that better focuses on the needs of patients and, at the same time, makes the health care system work better for physicians and other health care providers. Another major component of the report, which was required under the ACA, is a call for increased adoption of electronic health records.

“The Affordable Care Act sets America on a path toward a higher quality health care system so we stop doing things that don’t work for patients and start doing more of the things that do work,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in announcing the report.