The Measures Library is a centralised information resource that contains a broad range of health care quality measures. Developed by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, the library promotes widespread access to quality measures for business analysts, health service researchers or clinical and administrative leaders.
The library allows users to download, navigate and interact with the following features:
Used together, these features improve users' awareness and knowledge about measures and measurement and help them use data to inform quality improvement initiatives.
By supporting the health and disability sector workforce in this way, we can strengthen the capability to measure, and manage, important aspects of health care design and delivery.
The Measures Library is not an intelligence tool – it does not describe health care variation or support the management and monitoring of health care variation. This is because results from the library are of low specificity and so cannot inform local, regional or system problems. Results may align with strategic or quality planning areas, but they should not be relied on to solely inform priorities.
The library is also not a statistical analysis or process control tool that allows identification of outliers or unusual events within the data.
The library should not be used for setting health targets or as a benchmarking tool.
Aotearoa New Zealand's public health system has been found to have entrenched health inequalities and inconsistencies, and, for Māori, it has failed to fulfil Te Tiriti o Waitangi responsibilities. To address this, the government has committed to Pae Ora (Healthy Futures), which involves transforming the national health system to provide a platform for Māori to live with good health and wellbeing in an environment that supports a good quality of life.
Pae Ora is based on a holistic concept and encourages those in the health system to work collaboratively, beyond the narrow definitions of health, and provide high-quality and effective services.
It consists of three key elements that are essential for the strengthening of Māori health. All the elements are interconnected, and mutually reinforcing.
The Measures Library will help to achieve the vision and goals of Pae Ora, as it enables business analysts, health service researchers or clinical and administrative leaders to access consistent and correct information to support improvement in the design and delivery of health services, thus helping to improve equity in outcomes and experiences of care.
This measures library was developed by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, based on work by Epi-interactive and Te Hiringa Hauora
We would like to acknowledge the support and enthusiasm of all those involved in the development of the library, including the many individuals who provided feedback through usability testing, and the system and analytics team at the Ministry of Health, which worked so hard to provide data.
Health Quality & Safety Commission. 2022. Measures Library (online resource). Wellington: Health Quality & Safety Commission. URL: https://reports.hqsc.govt.nz/measureslibrary/ (Accessed [INSERT DATE])
If you have any questions or feedback about the Measures Library, please email info@hqsc.govt.nz
