In November, ACEP convened a Quality and Performance Summit in Washington, D.C. The group discussed ways that emergency medicine may be integrated into future quality initiatives at the national level.

ACEP has long been involved in quality improvement, and has generated more than 22 evidence-based clinical guidelines since publishing its first, on chest pain, in 1990.

This latest set of NQF measures is a good addition to the quality field, several speakers acknowledged. But, much work lies ahead to develop metrics for different aspects of emergency care.

In ACEP’s view, the process should be clearly defined, deliberative, risk-adjusted, pilot-tested and phased in across a variety of specialties and practice settings.

It also helps if measures are developed by physicians with expertise in the area of care in question, and based on factors directly under their control.

So ACEP will continue to work with all relevant parties to ensure that happens.

NQF’s focus will likely turn to coordination of care, according to NQF Senior Vice President for Performance Measures Dr. Helen Burstin. She appealed to emergency physicians to think about their role in coordination of care as well as the collective responsibility across all care settings.

Well-coordinated care across all providers is a national goal, she said. Emergency physicians offer valuable input because they often sit at the nexus between the office-based physician practice and the hospital.

Accordingly, ACEP is working on the NQF panel and participating in the concurrent AMA workgroup focusing on coordination of care.