(National Quality Forum: Washington) -- The National Quality Forum (NQF) has opened the application period for its 2011 National Quality Healthcare Award, which recognizes exceptional organizational leadership and innovation to achieve national goals for quality improvement. The 2011 award application is open through Oct. 27, 2010.

NQF presents the National Quality Healthcare Award each year to exemplary health care organizations that are role models for achieving meaningful, sustainable quality improvement in health care. This year, the award will focus on clinical integration, care coordination, and the ability to achieve the best outcomes at the most affordable cost. These areas of focus describe the basic criteria for an accountable care organization that requires hospitals and doctors to work closely together; their payment is based on improving care, meeting quality indicators, and holding costs down. This is the opposite of the current system, where doctors are paid more by providing more services, and hospitals profit by admitting more patients.

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