Examining the National Quality Strategy (NQS)- Its Three Aims and the Role of Technology in Advancing Healthcare Quality

Examining the National Quality Strategy (NQS)- Its Three Aims and the Role of Technology in Advancing Healthcare Quality

The National Quality Strategy (NQS) is the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care for the United States developed through a multistakeholder collaborative process. This article reviews the National Quality Strategy (NQS) to identify and discuss its aims, why technology is an important component of the plan, as well as the beneficial and negative implications of healthcare information technology.

The Three aims of the NQS

The NQS has three broad goals.  The first goal of the NQS is better care. The NQS provides guidance to local, State, and national healthcare systems on approaches to improve the delivery of more patient-centered and safe care with the aim of improving the quality of care (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). This aim of the NQS further guides healthcare systems to deliver care that is accessible, reliable, efficient, and effective.

The second goal of the NQS is focused on healthy people/healthy communities.  NQS aims to improve the health of Americans by providing support for the implementation of evidence-based interventions that address the major determinants of population health such as the social, environmental, and behavioural factors (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). The third aim of the NQS is to ensure the affordability of care. The NQS aims to guide the healthcare systems at all levels in the U.S. to employ and adopt strategies that reduce the costs of quality healthcare for individuals and populations.

Why Technology is an Essential Aspect of the Plan

Technology is essential for the NQS to achieve its aims of ensuring better quality, affordable, and accessible care for individuals and the population. To achieve these goals, the NQS will require improved efficiency of care delivery, improved health promotion, elimination of unnecessary costs, and improved efficiency of care coordination. The NQS will also need to focus more on employing strategies that help manage current chronic conditions as well as promote preventive healthcare strategies to reduce the epidemiology of chronic diseases in the U.S.  Meeting these goals using conventional manual methods may prove to be hard. There are a majority of New and emerging technologies that promise to overcome the barriers the NQS faces in achieving its major goals of more affordable and accessible quality care. Technology such as high-speed internet, electronic health records (EHRs), telehealth, big data and data analytics, mHealth, nanotechnology, and social media platforms are proving to be essential in helping the U.S. achieve the NQS aims.

Impacts of Healthcare Information Technology

The utilization of healthcare information technology to aid in achieving the NQS aims has both positive and negative impacts. Healthcare IT promises to provide more coordinated patient care resulting in improved patient outcomes. Technologies such as EHRs have already proved to support care coordination and health system performance with better care quality and patient care outcomes (Zheng et al., 2020).  EHRs also support the development of evidence to support evidence-based care and clinical decision-making resulting in better quality of care and patient outcomes (Harvey et al., 2019). This also allows personalization of care which is essential to better outcomes at the individual and population levels. Technologies such as telehealth also support remote care coordination, improve health promotion, and eliminate costs related to transport (Kaplan, 2020).

However, health IT has negative implications. For example, the use of healthcare technologies such as telemedicine has produced new ethical, legal, and societal challenges that impede the delivery of excellent care  (Kaplan, 2020). The technologies in healthcare settings also create security and privacy concerns that affect the population’s trust in these technologies.

Conclusion

The NQS was developed specifically to guide and assess local, State, and national efforts to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and general health in the United States. Due to the challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system such as the burden of chronic conditions, and increasing care costs, healthcare IT such as EHRs, telehealth, and mHealth among others is essential to the achievement of the NQS goals and ensures better quality for individuals and the community.

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2017, March). About the National Quality Strategy. AHRQ Archive. https://archive.ahrq.gov/workingforquality/about/index.html

Harvey, G., Gifford, W., Cummings, G., Kelly, J., Kislov, R., Kitson, A., Pettersson, L., Wallin, L., Wilson, P., & Ehrenberg, A. (2019). Mobilising evidence to improve nursing practice: A qualitative study of leadership roles and processes in four countries. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 90, 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJNURSTU.2018.09.017

Kaplan, B. (2020). Revisiting Health Information Technology Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues And Evaluation: Telehealth/Telemedicine and Covid-19. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 143, 104239. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJMEDINF.2020.104239

Zheng, K., Ratwani, R. M., & Adler-Milstein, J. (2020). Studying Workflow and Workarounds in Electronic Health Records–Supported Work to Improve Health System Performance. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(11), S116–S122. https://doi.org/10.7326/M19-0871

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Review the National Quality Strategy (NQS)Links to an external site.

Examining the National Quality Strategy (NQS)- Its Three Aims and the Role of Technology in Advancing Healthcare Quality

Discuss the three aims of the NQS.
Discuss why technology is an essential aspect of the plan.
Discuss the positive and negative impacts related to healthcare information technology.