Health IT meets quality measurement on HIMSS’ Quality 101 website

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) recently launched the Quality 101 website, a resource for information about the basics of quality measurement and improvement. The website “provides a structured collection of resources for healthcare providers and health IT professionals so that the electronic health record (EHR) can be leveraged to capture data to monitor and trend outcomes and improve quality, safety and efficiencies,” said David Collins, HIMSS director for health care information systems.

Developed by the HIMSS Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes Committee, the Quality 101 website is being launched in quarterly phases, with phase 1 providing a primer on quality measurement and reporting. Phase 2 will include information about the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle approach to quality improvement.

Quality measurement is one of the requirements for demonstrating the meaningful use of EHRs. However, according to Lou Diamond, chair of the HIMSS Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes Committee, “Quality measurement and improvement activities have, until recently, been running on separate tracks and parallel tracks with the adoption of healthcare information technology.” The Quality 101 website attempts to bridge that gap by giving health IT professionals a “portal into the world of quality, quality measurement and improvement.”