Quality of Care
Close working partnerships will be developed between academic family medicine, community-based family physicians and other partners in order to address the quality goals specified in the IOM’s Quality Chasm report. Family physicians and their practice partners will have support systems to measure and report regularly their performance on the 6 IOM aims of quality health care (safe, timely, effective, equitable, patient-centered, and efficient). Family medicine residency programs will track and report regularly the performance of their residents during their training on the 6 IOM quality measures and will modify their training programs as necessary to improve performance.
Implementation Update (January 2005): The AAFP referred implementation of this FFM Strategic Initiative to 3 AAFP programs: Practice Enhancement Program ( PEP), Performance Measures Training Course Program (PMTP), and the Quality Initiative’s member and staff liaisons. The AAFP’s newly approved PEP is working to install systems and emphasize standardization of processes in practice. The first proposed training course for PEP will teach a system of care that will encompass the 6 IOM aims, information technology, acute care, the chronic disease model, planned care for prevention, and quality measures for self assessment and improvement. The program will support the FFM New Model of Care by helping physicians and their office staff achieve a patient-centered team approach to improving medical care as well as a more functional redesigned office, with a focus on quality and outcomes and enhanced practice viability. The primary goal of the PMTP program is to increase the number of family physicians who participate in national performance measures development activities. Finally, through the Quality Initiative, the AAFP has established strong working relationships with organizations involved in quality improvement and performance measurement.