HRSA and NIH Guest Editors’ Preface
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- HRSA and NIH Guest Editors’ Preface
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU) are pleased to present this special issue titled Evidence for Informing the Next Generation of Quality Improvement Initiatives: Models, Methods, Measures, and Outcomes. Guest editors from the two respective agencies collaborated to design this special journal issue to address quality improvement initiatives related to clinical care outcomes, health systems delivery, organizational efficiencies, financing models, medical error reductions, patient safety improvement, and communications. The prevailing questions were:
-
1. What evidence-based or prevailing practices have accelerated quality improvement initiatives in health care delivery, patient care, and outcomes within the safety-net setting?
-
2. What clinical improvement initiatives or interventions have led to quality care and outcomes for patients as well as care efficiencies and cost-savings?
-
3. What are the novel quality improvement measurements, methodologies, and tools in health outcomes?
-
4. How can the science of quality improvement be enhanced to align with current prevailing initiatives in practice and add value to improved quality care and outcomes?
-
5. What are the challenges and innovative strategies needed to improve and sustain quality health care delivery and outcomes to vulnerable populations?
This issue received support from the leadership at HRSA as well as from the director of NIMHD, as is evident in their respective forewords. The Guest Editors would like to thank the many authors who submitted manuscripts that, unfortunately, were not able to be included due to space limitations. We also would like to thank Dr. George Isham for his willingness to provide a formal introduction to the themes and articles, and places them in the current context of the nation’s dialogue on quality improvement. We hope that you enjoy the articles included here and that these articles will result in discussion that will inform quality initiatives to improve the health of all Americans. [End Page 3]
Ahmed Calvo, Amber Berrian, and Samantha Meklir are in the Office of Health Information Technology and Quality of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Avril Melissa Houston is in the Office of Health Equity of HRSA. Paula Goodwin and Nishadi Rajapakse are in the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
