Clinical Quality Measures

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Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) as defined by CMS

Clinical quality measures, or CQMs, are tools that help us measure and track the quality of healthcare services provided by eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs) within our health care system. These measures use a wide variety of data that are associated with a provider’s ability to deliver high-quality care or relate to long term goals for health care quality. CQMs measure many aspects of patient care including: health outcomes, clinical processes, patient safety, efficient use of healthcare resources, care coordination, patient engagements, population and public health, and clinical guidelines. Continuously measuring and reporting these CQMs helps to ensure that our health care system can deliver effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered, equitable, and timely care.

Meaningful Use

From HealthIT.gov Electronic health records can provide many benefits for providers and their patients, but the benefits depend on how they're used. Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria. For details about the incentive programs, visit the CMS website.

Meaningful Use (MU) uses CQMs

As part of meeting one of the meaningful use core measures, EPs and eligible hospitals must report on clinical quality measures in order to successfully attest to meaningful use and receive an incentive payment. For information on clinical quality measures, including how to report on them from an EHR, visit the CMS Quality Measures page.

CMS promotes Meaningful Use standards related to using an EHR. One of the goals of MU is to improve quality, therefore MU standards incorporate Clinical Quality Measures. There are many other quality measures which are not incorporated into MU.

The US Department of Health and Human Services maintains lists of quality measures:

National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC)

NQMC is a public resource for evidence-based quality measures and measure sets. NQMC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is a database and Web site for information on specific evidence-based health care quality measures and measure sets. NQMC is sponsored by AHRQ to promote widespread access to quality measures by the health care community and other interested individuals.

The NQMC mission is to provide practitioners, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining detailed information on quality measures, and to further their dissemination, implementation, and use in order to inform health care decisions. NQMC builds on AHRQ's previous initiatives in quality measurement, including the Computerized Needs-Oriented Quality Measurement Evaluation System (CONQUEST), the Expansion of Quality of Care Measures (Q-SPAN) project, the Quality Measurement Network (QMNet) project, and the Performance Measures Inventory (PMI).

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Measure Inventory

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is committed to providing the public an inventory of the measures that are currently being used by the Divisions in HHS for quality measurement, improvement, and reporting. The Department's goal is to further advance collaboration among members of the quality community and to advance the effective use and harmonization of quality of care measures. The Department's transparency about the quality measures being used lays the foundation for the measurement enterprise and local users to build and improve upon. The HHS Measure Inventory is only accessible through the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC) Web site. "Cross links" are included for those measures that are in both the HHS Measure Inventory and represented in NQMC. We will continue our effort to establish cross links as appropriate when measures included in the HHS measure inventory are submitted to NQMC and accepted for inclusion. Please note that all measures and measure specifications in this inventory were self-reported by HHS divisions. Not all of the HHS Measures are in NQMC; there are several reasons for this: • They did not meet the NQMC inclusion criteria. • They are different versions of the measures represented in NQMC. • The specifications for the measures were not submitted. If there are concerns or questions about missing measures, measure specifications, updates, or other issues, please contactinfo@qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov.


2011-2013 Clinical Quality Measures for MU

There are 15 clinical quality measures for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals related to Meaningful Use for 2011 and 2012. These are continued for 2013. This is the CMS link to a table for those measures:

http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/CQM_Hospitals_2012_02_02.pdf


2014 Clinical Quality Measures for MU

There are 29 clinical quality measures for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals related to Meaningful Use beginning FY 2014. This is the CMS link to a table for those measures:

http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/2014_CQM_EH_FinalRule.pdf


Submitted by Mark Baker 8 March 2013

References

1. CMS.gov: EHR Incentive Programs: Clinical Quality Measures: http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/ClinicalQualityMeasures.html

2. HealthIT.gov: Policymaking, Regulation, and the Strategy: Meaningful Use: http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/meaningful-use

3. HealthIT.gov: EHR Incentives and Certification: How to Attain Meaningful Use: http://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/how-attain-meaningful-use

4. US Department of Health and Human Services: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: National Quality Measures Clearinghouse: http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/index.aspx http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/about/index.aspx

5. US Department of Health and Human Services: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: National Quality Measures Clearinghouse: US Department of health and human services Measure Inventory: http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/hhs-measure-inventory/browse.aspx