Clinical Quality

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clinicalquality NPs are known for their commitment to quality, safe care. The landmark 2001 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, "Crossing the Quality Chasm," set new expectations for all health care providers to measure the outcomes of their care with ongoing analysis and improvement guided by their previous performance. Use the tools below to enhance your efforts in this area.

There are many resources available to help NPs define the standards against which their practice should be measured, collect and analyze their outcomes, and identify strategies for ongoing improvement to ensure patients receive the best care possible.

Implementing Practice Improvement - QI/QA

Implementing Performance Improvement in the Clinical Setting - PDF - AANP, May 2012
Quality of Nurse Practitioner Practice - PDF - An overview of the research supporting the value the nurse practitioner brings to high-quality care.
Nurse Practitioner Cost-Effectiveness - PDF - An introduction to the body of evidence supporting NPs as cost-effective providers of high-quality care.
Practical Strategies to Measure Your Practice Outcomes - A CE activity addressing the rationale for monitoring outcomes of practice, as well as how to identify measurable outcomes and strategies to implement outcome measurement.
Patient Safety and Medical Errors - A page on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) website providing a number of resources to inform providers on how to enhance patient safety and minimize errors/risks.

Minimizing Risk

Medical Malpractice for the NP: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask - a CE program covering the actions NPs should take to reduce risk and make informed coverage purchasing decisions.
AANP offers members competitively priced professional liability and health insurance through Marsh U.S. Consumer (https://www.personal-plans.com/aanp/welcome.do). Protect yourself, your family's financial security and your career with your own individual liability coverage. Even if you have Professional Liability coverage through your employer, it may not be enough. Here's why:
- Policy limits may not be high enough to protect you and all of your co-workers named in a lawsuit.
- You may not be provided with coverage for lost wage reimbursement, licensing board hearing reimbursement and defense costs.
- You may not be covered outside of the workplace, such as volunteer and part-time work.

Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS)

For PQRS information check out AANP's Reimbursement page.