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The National Quality Forum (NQF) helps determine the measures used to monitor standards for diabetes care. But many NQF measures were endorsed more than a decade ago, representatives said, and since then medical knowledge and treatment options have evolved. NQF recently launched the Endocrine Measure Endorsement/Maintenance project to further improve NQF’s performance measures for diabetes and other endocrine-based conditions, including osteoporosis, thyroid disease and metabolic syndrome. Sullivan, an NQF founding member, is a member of the project’s Endocrine Steering Committee.
“I am honored to serve on a steering committee that will review measures for conditions that have such a big impact on so many people’s lives,” Sullivan said. “Physicians know how to treat these conditions, and want to deliver excellent care to all their patients. Measurement helps doctors to do so. Just as it would be hard to maintain the speed limit without a speedometer, without measures it is hard to know if the care you are providing is meeting the standards. Quality measures allow practices to track that appropriate care is delivered on time, and to identify patients who are falling behind. Then doctors and nurses can take steps to improve care for all their patients.”
Representatives said that Sullivan "understands the challenges health care professionals face in managing diabetes." Sullivan recognized that quality measures based on a large practice population might not reveal the incremental success made by physicians serving Hudson members and in response developed a patient-centered approach that rewarded health care professionals for each Hudson diabetes patient who showed improvement, rather than basing incentives on a practice-wide metric, representatives said.
“Jessie views performance measures as a lens that helps physicians focus on the quality of their care,” explained Georganne Chapin, president and chief executive officer of Hudson Health Plan. “She is passionate in partnering with health-care professionals to measure and improve patient care. Her experience in addressing disparities in the care of vulnerable populations, where diabetes has reached almost epidemic proportions, will be invaluable to the work of the Endocrine Steering Committee.”
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