Strategic Issues in Health Care Quality

This course examines the movement to health care quality in the US, providing students with definitions of quality and a historical perspective on quality initiatives. Primary focus of the class is on quality initiatives in the past 10 years, including efforts by the Institute of Medicine, Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, various accrediting organizations (e.g. NCQA), and employer-based initiatives such as HEDIS and Leapfrog. There will be in depth analysis of establishing and measuring the quality of health care in various organizational settings, on risk management and legal issues, and on recent efforts to link quality with pay for performance.