Federal efforts to improve quality of care: the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC).

FORMATION OF THE QUIC: The Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC) was established in 1998 to enable the participating federal agencies to coordinate their activities to study, measure, and improve the quality of care delivered by federal health programs; provide people with information to help them in making more informed choices about their care; and develop the research base and infrastructure needed to improve the health care system, including knowledgeable and empowered workers, well-designed systems of care, and useful information systems. STUDY, MEASURE, AND IMPROVE CARE: The QuIC's initial efforts to improve the care delivered in federal health care programs have focused on diabetes, depression, and the effect of working conditions on quality of care. More recently, patient safety efforts are under way to establish a coordinating center that will enable those who are testing methods of reducing errors to share information across their projects and with experts in error reduction. DEVELOP A RESEARCH BASE AND INFRASTRUCTURE: The QuIC has coordinated efforts in credentialing, information on measures of quality, a taxonomy of quality improvement methods, and errors data collection. PROVIDE INFORMATION TO AMERICANS ABOUT HEALTH CARE QUALITY: The QuIC agencies are developing products that will enhance their ability to communicate with the American people about their health care choices: improved gateways for consumer information available from federal agencies, a glossary of commonly used terms, and guidance for producing report cards on quality of care. MOVING THE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AGENDA FORWARD: Federal efforts to improve quality of care are moving forward in a more integrated fashion on a wide number of fronts.