Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) was the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities and provide models for national reform.

AF4Q asked the people who get care, give care and pay for care to work together toward common, fundamental objectives to lead to better care. The 16 geographically, demographically, and economically diverse communities participating in AF4Q together covered 12.5 percent of the U.S. population.

Can bringing together the people who give care, get care, and pay for care improve quality in America? AF4Q communities proved it can.

After eight years, AF4Q communities have built transformative partnerships, often where none existed before:
 

• Data on quality, cost, and patient experience measures are being collected and publicly reported;
• Practice coaches are deployed in hundreds of primary care practices;
• Hospitals are improving care from emergency department to bedside;
• Patients are playing a crucial part in transforming health care;
• New models for care delivery and organization are being tested and implemented; and
• Innovative payment reform is becoming a reality.

Aligning Forces for Quality proved that by working together—we can solve some of the most vexing problems of our health care system.