The Commonwealth Fund has published a brief suggesting components of a framework to track health care delivery system reform.  Citing the national health care reform law's emphasis on delivery system reform, the authors note that a tool is needed to track community-level progress.  The brief offers the rationale for implementing such a system and outlines a potential framework for its operation.

From the report:

Delivery System Reform Tracking: A Framework for Understanding Change

The primary goal of a delivery system tracking tool is to understand whether progress is being made in a given community. It is necessary, therefore, to have some notion of what progress would look like. In other words, what is a reformed delivery system, and how will we know it when we see it? As stated by the Institute of Medicine, we believe that the United States needs a health care system that is safer, more effec­tive, more patient-centered, timelier, more efficient, and more equitable than the traditional non-system that dominates American health care today.2 In short, a reformed system is one in which the various ele­ments—primary care physicians, specialists, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, etc.—can manage health and economic outcomes by measuring, planning, and executing changes to improve performance and are held accountable for delivering high-quality, affordable care and a positive patient experience.

Full report: Delivery System Reform Tracking: A Framework for Understanding Change (PDF | 943.51 KB)

Commonwealth Fund.  (2011).  Delivery system reform tracking: a framework for understanding change.  Tollen, R., Enthover, A., Crosson, F., Audet, A., Schoen, C. and Ross, M.