Since its inception, URAC’s focus has been to improve the quality of care provided to patients across the health care continuum. Continuous quality improvement is a cornerstone of our accreditation programs. Leading by example, URAC restructured its quality program this past year, based on Six Sigma and LEAN principles. Both approaches support the idea that process improvement results in better outcomes leading to a positive customer experience. 
As part of its quality strategy developed by the Quality, Research and Measurement Department, URAC convened the Quality Council in 2016 to ensure ongoing attention to quality improvement. The Quality Council is composed of individual volunteers from URAC’s various departments who have an interest in quality and process improvement. The goal is to improve the products and services of URAC through data driven analytics that lead to process enhancements, leading to a positive customer experience.
URAC’s “2016 Quality Report” focuses on the quality activities of the organization. The report includes both routine monitoring activities as well as improvement initiatives. Examples of routine activities include the development of the Balanced Scorecard, for which Q1, 2017 results are currently being collected, and a revision of the Customer Satisfaction Survey that will be released in this Q2 of this year. Examples of improvement activities initiated this past year include optimization of grievance investigation process, restructuring validation reviews, revising the inter-rater reliability program, and the stabilization of AccreditNet 2.0. Activities for 2017 are detailed in the report.
The 2016 Quality Report is available to staff on Sharepoint through the following link: CLICK HERE.
If you should have any questions or concerns, please contact Josh Spofford, quality manager, directly.
