New alliance seeks to improve long-term services across spectrum
New alliance seeks to improve long-term services across spectrum
The Long-Term Quality Alliance, which was formally introduced Tuesday, is dedicated to improving the quality of long-term services and supports.
The alliance will focus on improving the quality of the experience of consumers and family caregivers in both nursing home and home healthcare settings. Current quality efforts tend to focus on clinical services delivered in nursing homes and often overlook the perspectives of consumers and family caregivers, said Alliance Chair Mary Naylor in a statement. She announced the creation of the alliance in a briefing Tuesday sponsored by the health policy journal Health Affairs.
The alliance's key priorities will include identifying promising performance and quality measures; recommending ways to implement those measures in clinical and community settings; proposing ways to reinforce current quality initiatives; and achieving improvements through pilot programs, demonstration projects and other efforts. It will focus initially on two issues: improving care transitions and reducing unnecessary hospitalizations.
The 29-member board of directors is comprised of health, consumer, and policy experts. They include Mark McClellan, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services; Larry Minnix, president and CEO of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging; Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care; and Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association. The board's inaugural meeting will take place Jan 28.
