Ouality and performance measurement: national efforts to improve quality of care through measurement development.

The US Department of Health and Human Services created the National Quality Strategy to provide a framework to focus providers and organizations in achieving greater impact around better care, healthy people and communites, and affordable care. Providing incentive programs around quality measurement is one mechanism used to achieve these aims. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) should begin to familiarize themselves with the consensus development process used in measurement development and the importance of measurement endorsement through the National Quality Forum. Additionally, CRNAs should become familiar with what Physician Quality Reporting System (PORS) measures CRNAs are currently using in anesthesia and the 2015 payment adjustments one may face if not currently reporting to the PORS.