Clinical Quality

Addressing the increasingly visible issues surrounding physician performance measurement and reporting is an AMA priority, including initiatives being implemented by payers, and public concerns about patient safety.

To deal with the demand for performance measures that are coming from all stakeholders involved in the delivery and receipt of payment for health care, the AMA brings together physicians of all specialties to develop evidence-based measures of clinical quality that are best for patients. It is imperative that physicians be leaders in defining quality.

Physician-developed measures are now available for more than 260 clinical topics, and each set includes measure descriptions with coding specifications and easy-to-use worksheets. Electronic health records systems are being encouraged to incorporate the measures, which are endorsed by the National Quality Forum™ and selected by the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance.

On behalf of its members, the AMA also takes a clear position on linking quality care assessment to assessing efficiencies and cost of care.