The National Quality Forum’s National Quality Partners (NQP), together with the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), is leading an initiative to bring diverse stakeholders together to identify the most promising strategies to promote shared decision-making and goal-oriented care for the nation’s growing population of elderly adults with chronic conditions.

This effort is part of an NQP action team strategy to improve overall advanced illness care.

More than 55 million elderly Americans are enrolled in Medicare, a population that grows by 10,000 new enrollees every day. Caring for Medicare’s most seriously ill patients—approximately five percent of all beneficiaries—accounts for half of the program’s budget.

“This work will accelerate efforts to empower and engage patients and families, and explore related measures that could be developed to increase accountability,” said Christine K. Cassel, MD, president and CEO of NQF and a leading geriatrician. “By bringing together health professionals, patient and family advocates, home- and community-based organizations, and other stakeholders, this project aims to create a shift in policy and culture that embraces—and champions—patient preferences and values.”

NQF will publish an issue brief outlining actionable strategies and key measurement concepts in early 2017. Supported by The Research Retirement Foundation, this project builds on a broader NQP action team initiative to promote high-quality care for adult patients of all ages with advanced illness. Through its action team model, NQP seeks to maximize the collective impact of diverse stakeholders by galvanizing them to action around a specific healthcare need.

“Patient preferences, values and goals are increasingly influencing care planning,” said David Longnecker, MD, chief clinical innovations officer at C-TAC and co-chair of NQP’s advanced illness care action team. “Our goal is to make shared decision-making, when patients and clinicians discuss and decide treatment plans together, the standard of practice in healthcare.”

NQP will hold a series of virtual forums to bring together healthcare professionals, providers, social workers, community leaders, individuals with advanced illness and their families, and individuals caring for older adults with advanced illness.