The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) strongly supports efforts to implement the best evidence-based guidelines to improve health care, including the ultimate goal of eliminating National Quality Forum (NQF) Serious Reportable Events (SRE) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) identified Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC). Initiatives focusing on areas with a well-developed evidence base for prevention and amendable to stardardization are more likely to be successful in driving improvement.
Therefore, the AAFP supports performance improvement for all SREs and HACs, including a root cause analysis and implementation of robust systems to reduce these serious, largely preventable, and harmful clinical events. In addition, the AAFP recommends further research to delineate evidence-based practices that address such conditions in an actionable and scalable fashion for both inpatient and ambulatory settings. (2010 COD) (2020 COD)