Partnerships for Quality

Leapfrog Group / AHRQ
9/1/03 - 9/30/06

Dennis Scanlon, Department of Health Policy and Administration
Eric Ford, Tulane University
Jon Christianson, University of Minnesota

The overall goal of this project was to design, implement and test the effectiveness of purchaser-based incentive and reward programs for motivating health care providers (hospitals and/or physicians) and consumers to speed implementation of Leapfrog's recommended patient safety practices. The specific aims of the project were to:

  1. Document and understand purchasers' interest in designing and implementing incentive and reward programs and integrating them into purchasing decisions, as well as to identify important purchaser and market characteristics related to these decisions;
  2. Document and understand the decision making processes purchasers use to develop strategies and implement purchasing interventions aimed at improving health care quality and safety; and
  3. Measure the impact of purchaser interventions designed to improve health care quality and safety.