National Quality Strategy Overview
Origins of the National Quality Strategy
The National Quality Strategy (NQS) was first published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in 2011, as required by the Affordable Care Act. The strategy provides a national framework for quality improvement efforts across the healthcare system. It sets shared priorities and goals that align the work of federal agencies, state governments, healthcare providers, payers, and consumers. The NQS has been updated periodically to reflect evolving priorities and emerging evidence.
Three Broad Aims
The National Quality Strategy is organized around three overarching aims. The first is better care, which means improving the overall quality of care by making healthcare more patient-centered, reliable, accessible, and safe. The second is healthy people and healthy communities, which focuses on improving population health by supporting proven interventions and addressing social, environmental, and behavioral determinants of health. The third is affordable care, which targets reducing healthcare costs through improved care delivery and community health.
Six Priorities
The NQS identifies six priorities for action: making care safer by reducing harm caused during the delivery of care, ensuring that each person and family are engaged as partners in their care, promoting effective communication and coordination of care, promoting the most effective practices for the leading causes of mortality, working with communities to promote wide use of best practices for healthy living, and making quality care more affordable by developing new delivery models. These priorities guide federal quality programs and influence private sector quality initiatives.
Levers for Change
The strategy identifies nine levers that stakeholders can use to drive quality improvement: measurement and feedback, public reporting, learning and technical assistance, certification and accreditation, consumer incentives and benefit design, payment, health information technology, innovation and diffusion, and workforce development. These levers represent the tools available to different stakeholders for translating quality goals into practice improvements.
CPHQ Exam Relevance
The National Quality Strategy provides important context for CPHQ exam questions about healthcare policy, quality measurement programs, and organizational quality strategy. Understanding the NQS framework helps you connect individual quality improvement activities to broader national goals. Questions may ask about the strategy's aims, priorities, or how specific programs align with national quality objectives.