AMA Drafts Letter to President Obama

The American Medical Association has drafted letter seeking to collaborate with the new Administration and Congress and other organizations to develop and carry out action plans to achieve them a Patient-Centered Culture.

The letter outlined ten key critical components to achieving this outcome. They were:
10 Critical Components of a Patient-Centered Culture

1. Shared Decision Making-each patient and caregiver and the accountable team of healthcare professionals-physicians and all healthcare professionals-providing care to the patient have a shared understanding of the options for treatment, selected treatment plans, and desired outcomes
   
2. Shared Understanding of Quality-each member of the team understands the core facets of high quality care and has the competencies to practice in a 21st century system, as envisioned by the Institute of Medicine's Crossing the Quality Chasm report In support of efficiently implementing the plan and achieving good outcomes for the patient, the team of healthcare professionals:
3. has timely access to patient records, including all relevant tests results to avoid redundancy and risk to the patient
4. has access to comparative-effectiveness research information to assist in value-based decisionmaking at the point of care
5. is implementing a set of performance measures-based on clinical evidence and supported by their profession and other stakeholders-and these measures encompass processes, outcomes, and appropriateness of care
6. enters patient data into an interoperable electronic health record system (EHRS) once; the EHRS provides decision support; performance measurement results; and the ability to export data to other entities overseeing professional accountability, data aggregation, and public reporting
7. reviews performance reports routinely to identify areas for improvement; these reports track variations in care, particularly across patient co-morbidities as well as patient race, ethnicity, primary language and other relevant demographic characteristics
8. implements best practices from participation in a Quality Improvement (QI) collaborative- partnership among local and state entities that provide resources, tools, technical assistance, and training on quality improvement techniques With input from other stakeholders, the profession of medicine in this new culture:
9. comes together consistently to set targets; evaluates its progress on improving patient outcomes and effectively managing resources; determines which improvement methodologies have the greatest impact in practice; and monitors unintended consequences
10. practices transparency and accountability by reporting findings broadly

To read the full letter click here.