Overview of the HHS Consensus Statement on Quality int he Public Health System

The HHS Consensus Statement on Quality was developed as a macro-level framework to guide quality improvement activities in the public health system. The Consensus Statement was developed in collaboration with system partners and is designed to support current and future quality improvement programss by defining characteristics of quality in the system. This work was undertaken in response to a recommendation in 1998 by the President's Advisory Committee on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health care sector that recommended that all sectors of health develop aims for the improvement of quality. While aims for quality improvement in patient care were developed by an IOM Committee in 2001, a comparable effort was not undertaken to define characteristics of quality in the public health system.

The characteristics developed for public health quality promote strategic decision-making while focusing attention on the development of synergistic efforts to improve quality and ultimately improve population health outcomes. This presentation will focus on explaining those characteristics (Aims) of quality while also providing examples on how the framework can be applied in the practice of public health.