title: A transparency and accountability framework for high-value inpatient nursing care.
abstract: Transparency and accountability are terms that typically refer to activities aimed at measuring and holding providers responsible for their performance through such vehicles as public disclosure of comparative results. Today, transparency and accountability policies are widely accepted strategies to drive quality improvement and stimulate consumer choice. Yet nursing, the single largest health care profession, has not yet been engaged in these policy directions nor considered in their design or implementation. The framework reported here offers nurses and their professional organizations a model for which to advocate for policy change. Hospital and health system executives who have the freedom to establish institutional policies might implement this framework to achieve higher value. This framework provides both the context and components of a system that, if implemented, would measure, report, and reward hospital nursing's contributions to high value.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Kurtzman
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016294:Models, Nursing; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D012107:Research Design; D012941:Social Responsibility; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology