March 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 3
First applicant: AAFP President Bruce Bagley, M.D., of Albany, N.Y., hands his application for the new Practice Quality Enhancement Program to Colleen Lawler, staff executive of AAFP's Task Force on Quality Enhancement. With her are, from left, Norman Kahn Jr., M.D., vice president for education and science, and Stacey Eubanks, quality improvement manager. Bagley presented his application during the winter meetings of AAFP commissions and committees.AAFP launches Practice Quality Enhancement Program
The pilot phase of the AAFP Practice Quality Enhancement Program is under way -- and you can volunteer to participate.
Most FPs can find ways to enhance the quality of their practice systems, says AAFP President Bruce Bagley, M.D., of Albany, N.Y., who has made quality the key issue of his presidency. And patients appreciate improvements in any system that makes them wait, he says."What we need to do is take a look at our outcomes, look at how we're doing, and then make improvements and measure again."
While it's voluntary, the quality program functions similarly to the present mandatory CME requirements for AAFP membership. Volunteers must accumulate 50 quality points over three years. For example, participating in a National Committee on Quality Assurance audit would earn a participating FP 10 quality points, and implementing changes recommended by the audit, with later evaluation of performance, would yield another 25 points.
Bagley says information gleaned in this pilot phase will be used to beef up the program -- all with one common goal: "We want Americans to equate family physicians with the delivery of high-quality medical care even more than they do today."
Send an e-mail to qualitypoints@aafp.org to volunteer.
Visit the Academy's Medical Quality Clearinghouse at www.aafp.org/quality/ for resources to promote and improve quality in your practice.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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