Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative
SOURCES OF EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE
AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) Practice Resources provides links to various clinical guidelines and measures for use in providing evidence-based practice and in designing systems to support quality care.
American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria ® has published guidelines to assist referring physicians and other healthcare providers in making the most appropriate imaging decision. These criteria may also be used to monitor imaging that is appropriate when ordered.
American College of Radiology (ACR) Guidelines and Standards provides these educational tools to help guide decision-making by radiologists and patients in planning and performing examinations, treatments, and procedures.
Physician Performance Measurement Set - Radiology are a set of clinical performance indicators developed by the American College of Radiology, the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement® (Consortium), and the National Committee for Quality Assurance. They are designed to be used for measuring processes to identify improvement opportunities.
evidencebasedradiology.net is a step-by-step outline for implementing improvements based on an evidence-based radiology practice framework.
Physicians Consortium for Performance Improvement (AMA/PCPI or The Consortium) is a developer of evidence-based measurement instruments for use by various medical and surgical specialties, including Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.
Health Care Innovations Exchange a new AHRQ program that allows health care professionals to share and adopt new innovations that improve care delivery.
National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC) is maintained by AHRQ and is a repository for evidence-based quality measures and measurement sets. The Consortium's measurement sets can be found in NQMC.
National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC) is maintained by AHRQ and is a repository for evidence-based clinical guidelines. ACR's Guidelines and Standards can be found in NGC.
Quality Indicators are measures of quality associated with processes of care that occur in an outpatient or an inpatient setting. The measurement process uses administrative data captured from preventive care treatments, patient safety, inpatient care, and pediatric measures. Preventive care, patient safety, inpatient care, and pediatric indicators have pages devoted to detailed instructions on how to implement the measurement process.
National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accredits, certifies, and publicly recognizes organizations and physicians who participate in NCQA measurement activities. NCQA also develops process measures that are used by health plans for the purposes of reporting the quality of care delivered to their enrollees.
National Quality Forum (NQF) identifies 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 has established a panel of nationally recognized public and professional experts to identify and endorsing measures related to appropriate and efficient use of outpatient imaging at the practitioner and facility level - National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Outpatient Imaging Efficiency.
Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AQA) is a developer of measurement instruments for use at the individual or group level. The mission and goals of AQA focus on key areas that can help identify quality gaps and control costs.
Use any of the above measures or measurement sets to assess your practice against the published literature. Use the information to plan and implement and quality improvement initiative in your practice.
