What can and should we measure when it comes to patient care, experience, and outcomes? What matters most to patients and those who care for them? PQA is facilitating conversations to identify and elevate what patients, caregivers, and patient advocates might value and prioritize for future measurement.
My latest article in Drug Topics explores the opportunity to focus quality measures on outcomes and patient experience. Learn more about PQA’s commitment to patient engagement below.
We also highlight our members’ perspectives on healthcare gaps, diabetes care and the prior authorization lifecycle. If you have news you’d like for us to spotlight in an upcoming Five For Friday, send us an email!
— Richard Schmitz, PQA Chief Engagement Officer
Filling Healthcare Gaps
Albertsons‘ Tony DalPonte explains the retailer’s role in filling healthcare gaps in the communities it serves. “We’re a pharmacy within a grocery store, and it gives us unique access to food and nutrition and focusing on things like food is medicine. We also have a program where we are under contract to provide medically tailored meals based on disease state.”
Embedding Pharmacists for Diabetes Care
CVS Health‘s Sandra Leal discusses the importance of engaging pharmacists within primary care diabetes teams. She breaks down what truly effective pharmacist integration into a primary care diabetes team looks like, drawing on firsthand experience working across ambulatory care, hospital, and community settings.
Sharing Insights on the Prior Authorization Lifecycle
Lorece Shaw at Capital Rx explains her role in the prior authorization lifecycle. “We are incorporating AI [artificial intelligence] into prior authorization workflows by automating administrative and repetitive tasks, such as data intake and documentation. This allows pharmacists to spend more time on clinical review and decision-making.”
Focusing Quality Measures on Outcomes and Patient Experience
Patients, caregivers, family members and advocates have a critical role to play in high-quality medication use. They provide unique and valuable insights about what is important and meaningful in medication use quality, which supports the development of appropriate and useful quality measures, as well as related education, research and tools that support informed health care decisions and better medication use outcomes.
For its part, PQA includes three individuals, who represent patients, caregivers, and patient advocates, on its measurement panels. This includes Measure Concept Advisory Groups, Technical Expert Panels, and standing panels that evaluate draft measure concepts or consider updates to existing measures.
PQA engages patients, caregivers, and patient advocates throughout the measure life cycle because their perspectives, insights, and feedback are essential for meaningful, person-centered quality measures.
This approach to engagement and the goals outlined in the recent CMS final rule are aligned with the CMS National Quality Strategy and the person-centered care principles that are part of CMS’ Meaningful Measures 2.0.
Your Next Engagement Opportunities
Network, Learn and Collaborate with PQA
- Join us for the 3rd Quarter PQA Member Webinar on July 29, 1-2 p.m. ET. PQA Member Webinars share current quality measurement and research updates with members. Learn more.
- Save the date for the 2026 PQA Leadership Summit, November 5-6 in Arlington, Va. The summit convenes thought leaders, key decision makers, and quality stakeholders and is an invitation-only event.
- Save the date for the 2027 PQA Annual Meeting, May 10-12, in Indianapolis, Ind.
- PQA’s collaborative approach makes this meeting a top destination every year for quality improvement professionals.