Activity

Pediatric Health and Health Care Quality Measures

Type:

Consensus Study

Topics:

Quality and Patient Safety, Children, Youth and Families, Health Services, Coverage, and Access

Boards:

Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Board on Health Care Services

Activity Description

An ad hoc study committee has been formed to provide guidance to Congress on the extent and quality of efforts to measure child health status and the quality of health care for children across the age span and in relation to preventive care, treatments for acute conditions, and treatments aimed at ameliorating or correcting physical, mental, and developmental conditions in children.  The committee is:

• considering all of the major national population-based reporting systems sponsored by the Federal Government that are currently in place, including reporting requirements under Federal grant programs and national population surveys and estimates conducted directly by the Federal Government;
• identifing the information regarding child health and health care quality that each system is designed to capture and generate, the study and reporting periods covered by each system, and the extent to which the information so generated is made widely available through publication;
• identifing gaps in knowledge related to children’s health status, health disparities among subgroups of children, the effects of social conditions on children’s health status and use and effectiveness of health care, and the relationship between child health status and family income, family stability and preservation, and children’s school readiness and educational achievement and attainment; and
• making recommendations regarding improving/strengthening the timeliness, quality, and public transparency and accessibility of information about child health and health care quality.