National Quality Forum Members Elect New Council Leaders

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Quality Forum (NQF) announces the election of leadership for four of its eight member councils.  

NQF is a unique, multi-stakeholder, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.

Member organizations of NQF have the opportunity to take part in a national dialogue about how to measure healthcare quality and publicly report the findings.  NQF's members include a wide variety of stakeholders organized under eight member councils.  The elected chairs of the member councils advise NQF's Board of Directors on the organization's overall strategy and direction, provide input to the Consensus Standards Approval Committee on proposed consensus standards, and oversee NQF's education and award recognition programs.

"Each of these individuals will provide unique experiences and views on healthcare quality that are vital to building broad consensus on improving the quality of healthcare in this country," said Janet Corrigan, PhD, MBA, NQF president and CEO.  "We look forward to working with these leaders to further NQF's important mission."

The new leaders are:

Consumer Council

• Chair: Tanya Alteras, MPP, Associate Director, Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, National Partnership for Women & Families
• Vice Chair: Maureen Corry, MPH, Executive Director, Childbirth Connection (second term)

Health Plan Council

• Chair: Thomas James, III, MD, Medical Director National Network, Humana Inc.
• Vice Chair: Dick Salmon, MD, PhD, Senior National Medical Executive, Medical Management, CIGNA HealthCare

Purchaser Council

• Chair: David S.P. Hopkins, PhD, MS, Director of Quality Measurement, Pacific Business Group on Health (served a prior term as Vice Chair)
• Vice Chair: Louise Probst, MBA, RN, Executive Director, St. Louis Area Business Coalition on Health

Supplier-Industry Council

• Chair: Kathleen Shoemaker, MBA, PharmD, Consultant Federal and Quality Accounts, Lilly USA, LLC (served a prior term as Vice Chair)
• Vice Chair: Deborah Fritz, PhD, MPH, Director, Policy and Quality Standards, GlaxoSmithKline

Each member council is led by a chair and vice chair who serves a two-year term. New terms begin in November. NQF's other four member councils—the Health Professionals Council, the Provider Organizations Council, the Public/Community Health Agency Council, and the Quality Measurement, Research and Improvement Council—will hold leadership elections in 2011.

The mission of the National Quality Forum is to improve the quality of American healthcare by setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs. NQF, a non-profit organization (www.qualityforum.org) with diverse stakeholders across the public and private health sectors, was established in 1999 and is based in Washington, DC.

SOURCE National Quality Forum