§7311A Quality management officers

Summary

Requires the Under Secretary for Health to pick one senior Veterans Health Administration official to be the National Quality Management Officer. That person must report straight to the Under Secretary. They will run the health care quality program, set and enforce its rules, make a combined quality score using existing VA data sources (for example, the Inpatient Evaluation Center, the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, and the External Peer Review Program), watch and analyze routine quality measures (including reviews and reports already done by VA and the Inspector General), support research to improve quality measures, and do other quality tasks the Under Secretary assigns. The officer must also set up a confidential way for staff to report quality concerns and create peer review processes for VA physicians. Requires each Regional Director to name a Network quality management officer who reports to the Regional Director and to the National Quality Management Officer. Each medical facility director must name a facility quality management officer who reports to the facility director and the Network officer. Network officers run the network quality office and make sure facilities follow the quality rules. Facility officers design, share, and carry out the facility’s quality programs to meet the National Officer’s requirements. Money is authorized as needed to run these roles, and $25,000,000 is specifically authorized for the two fiscal years that begin after this law is enacted to carry out work on the combined metric, ongoing monitoring of measures, and related research.