U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Indian Health Service: The Federal Health Program for American Indians and Alaska Natives
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  Quality of IHS Health Care

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The Indian Health Service wants to provide you with the best health care and make sure you have the information you need to improve your health. We also want to show you how IHS reports on the quality of care it provides to its patients.

IHS reports on the quality of care it provides patients for the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).

Commissioned Corp Officer, Physician, and Nurse

What is GPRA?
Federal law says that IHS has to report to Congress each year on the quality of health care it provides to its patients. Other Federal health care programs such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have to do the same. This kind of report card is known as “Government Performance and Results Act” or GPRA report card. This means that all government health care programs are expected to improve the health of their patients with the money they get from Congress. Each year IHS includes its GPRA report card to Congress as part of the IHS budget.

The GPRA report card tells Congress about the quality of care IHS is providing to the American Indian and Alaska Native people. The report card includes certain performance measures developed by IHS for the AI/AN patient population. For example, quality of care is measured by how well we are treating diabetes and heart disease. It also measures how well we are doing in preventing diseases like cancer, obesity, and HIV.

In 2010 IHS reported on 21 GPRA and three other clinical performance measures. The report went to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress. See the IHS definition of each GPRA measures. [PDF – 262KB]