title: Analysis & commentary: A new quality compass: hospital boards' increased role under the Affordable Care Act.
abstract: The Affordable Care Act of 2010 promotes a clinically integrated, systems-based approach to health care. This means coordinating a patient's care over time and across all conditions, diseases, providers, and care settings. The aim is to achieve optimal results in terms of the overall quality of care as well as its efficiency, cost, safety, and timeliness. Hospital boards, which are legally accountable for the quality of the care their institutions provide, need to develop and implement effective quality oversight processes to achieve these objectives. Boards will have to focus less on the competence of individual providers and more on the functioning of the entire system of inpatient and outpatient care. We discuss the increased role of the boards in a systems-based approach to quality, and what steps they can take to meet the quality mandates of the Affordable Care Act.
authors: MaineHealth, Portland, ME, USA. belmoe@mainehealth.org
authors: Elisabeth
authors: E
authors: Belmont
authors: Claire Cowart
authors: CC
authors: Haltom
authors: Douglas A
authors: DA
authors: Hastings
authors: Robert G
authors: RG
authors: Homchick
authors: Lewis
authors: L
authors: Morris
authors: Julie
authors: J
authors: Taitsman
authors: Brian M
authors: BM
authors: Peters
authors: Robin Locke
authors: RL
authors: Nagele
authors: Beth
authors: B
authors: Schermer
authors: Kathryn Croom
authors: KC
authors: Peisert
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006075:Governing Board / Q000458:organization & administration; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014481:United States