The Quality Solution: The Stakeholder's Guide to Improving Health Care

The Quality Solution: The Stakeholder's Guide to Improving Health Care
AKA: Closing the Quality Chasm: How Providers, Purchasers, Patients, and Payers Can Improve Healthcare Quality
edited by David Nash, MD, MBA, FACP, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Neil I. Goldfarb, Program Director for Research, Department of Health Policy, Jefferson Medical College

Softcover, 321 pages
ISBN 0763727482
9780763727482
Jones & Bartlett
Copyright 2006
(click button below for the very best currently available price for this important resource)

Poor healthcare quality is a public health emergency. Landmark reports by the Institute of Medicine and other leading groups exposed the continuing inadequacies that plague the United States healthcare system. Despite the "red flags" that these reports raised, there has been only marginal improvement in healthcare quality. Therefore, improving the quality of health care should be one of our highest public health priorities.

If there is one idea that you should take away from reading this book it should he this: Improving the quality of health care is a public health emergency.

The Institute of Medicine called the substantial gulf between the vision of ideal care and the reality of what most individuals receive a “quality chasm”. The Quality Solution enlightens, informs, and challenges professionals in public health, medicine, health administration, and health law to bridge this chasm and to participate in the transformation of the science of health care quality measurement and improvement.

Using the contributions of a knowledgeable and experienced panel of contributors The Quality Solution profiles initiatives of the key health care stakeholders—consumers, payers, health care providers, and employers— and how they can work together to improve health care quality. In this essential book, David Nash profiles the initiatives on how the various health care parties, including consumers, payers (HMOs, insurance companies), health care providers, and employers, can work together to improve health care quality.

Recent studies completed by both the Institute of Medicine (of the National Academy of Sciences) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) have highlighted the continued problems with medical errors and health care quality and it's impact on health care and the U.S. economy. In September 2003, the NCQA reported that health system "quality gaps" resulted in 57,000 deaths annually. The NCQA also reports that the failure to deliver appropriate care costs the U.S. economy $11 billion in lost productivity.

Readers will appreciate the insights from many of the prominent contributors, benefiting from the succinct nature of the chapters. The intended audience of this book includes:

healthcare administrators
quality & risk management professionals
policy makers
medical clinicians, practitioners & professionals
students in schools of public health, medicine, health administration and health law

Prior to publication, an alternative name for this book was considered and it may be known by some with this previous book name: Closing the Quality Chasm: How Providers, Purchasers, Patients, and Payers Can Improve Healthcare Quality.

The editor, David Nash, MD, MBA, FACP, is The Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor and Chairman of the Department of Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Jefferson is one of a handful of medical schools in the nation with an endowed professorship in health policy. Dr. Nash, a board certified internist, founded the original Office of Health Policy in 1990. From 1996 to 2003, he served as the first Associate Dean for Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College. In 2004, he was named Co-director of the Masters Program in Public Health at Jefferson. Internationally recognized for his work in outcomes management, medical staff development, and quality-of-care improvement, his publications have appeared in more than 60 articles in major journals and in a dozen edited books, including A Systems Approach to Disease Management by Jossey-Bass Publishers and Connecting with the New Healthcare Consumer by Jones and Bartlett Publishers. In 1995, he was awarded the Latiolais ("Lay-shee-o-lay") Prize by the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy for his leadership in disease management and pharmacoeconomics. He also received the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award in October 1997 and was named an honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives in 1998.

Named by Modern Healthcare to the top 100 most powerful persons in healthcare list, his national activities include appointment to the JCAHO Advisory Committee on Performance Measurement, the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT) Board, and membership on the Board of Directors of the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) -- three key national groups focusing on quality measurement and improvement. He continues as one of the principal faculty members for quality of care issues of the American College of Physician Executives in Tampa, FL, and the developer of the ACPE Capstone Course on Quality. Dr. Nash is on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Partnerships in Quality Education program, bringing together managed care organizations and leading academic medical centers. Finally, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Healthcare Partners in Cincinnati, Ohio -- one of the nation's largest integrated delivery systems and chairs the Board Committee on Quality.

Dr. Nash is a consultant to organizations in both the public and private sectors including the Technical Advisory Group of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (a group he has chaired for the last five years), and numerous corporations within the pharmaceutical industry. He is on the board of directors and advisory board of six national firms involved in healthcare ecommerce. He is on the editorial board of six peer-reviewed journals. From 1984 to 1989, he was Deputy Editor, Annals of Internal Medicine, at the American College of Physicians. Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief of both P&T and Disease Management. He is a member of the Medical Economics editorial board. Dr. Nash received his BA in economics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; and his MBA in Health Administration (with honors) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, he was a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and Medical Director of a nine physician faculty group practice in general internal medicine.

(information provided by the publisher)

You may also be interested in / The Directory of Healthcare Recruiters /

Jump to a List / Health Administration & Leadership / Physician Executive, Medical Staff & Practice Management / Finance, Accounting, Economics, Billing & Reimbursement / Coding for Hospital, Physician & Clinical Services / Law, Malpractice, Ethics, Accreditation & Compliance / Quality Improvement, Outcomes & Customer Service / Risk Management, Security, Error Reduction & Patient Safety / Information Systems, Technology & Medical Records / Clinical Management & Executive Nursing / Behavioral Health, Social Work & Psychiatry Management / Human Resources, Management & Supervision / Directories, Data, Trends & Benchmarks / Software & CD-ROMs / Gift Ideas & Recommended Gifts / Journals, Magazines & Newsletters / Search for Books / Books Index /

Go to / Home Page / Toolbox for Health Administrators / Bookstore