Value-based purchasing (VBP) refers to a broad set of performance-based payment strategies that link financial incentives to health care providers performance on a set of defined measures in an effort to achieve better value. This report summarizes the current state of knowledge about VBP programs and offers recommendations for the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of VBP programs."

This book updates the policy context of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) patient safety initiative; documents the current priorities and activities undertaken; and assesses contributions of funded projects and dissemination actions to support adoption of evidence-based safe practices.It discusses implications for future AHRQ policy, programming, and research; suggests ways to strengthen AHRQ activities.It evaluates progress of the patient safety initiative led by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), focusing on how the current experiences of AHRQ and its funded projects can be used to strengthen subsequent program activities.

Addresses one step in the process of moving from teamwork training to teamwork practices that improve outcomes of care: identifying outcomes that are most likely to be affected as teamwork practices improve in an implementing organization. It discusses a literature search, methods for selecting and testing candidate measures, measures highly rated by clinical experts, and results of measure testing on administrative data of the DoD health system.