The legislature finds that:

(1)  The health care service system is under transition;

(2)  The growth of managed care and utilization review, the merger of facilities and regionalization of care systems, and increased competition and conversions from nonprofit to for-profit status, are evidence of this transition;

(3)  The changes have created strong public interest in issues relating to quality of care and access to health services, and require careful monitoring of quality of care issues and new and improved public sector approaches to measuring, evaluating and improving quality;

(4)  It is an important public health function to promote quality in the state’s health care system by developing a health care quality performance measures and reporting program to guide quality improvement initiatives.