Safety First

MAP issues draft strategies for aligning quality measures

The Measures Application Partnership on Aug. 29 released a draft strategy for aligning public and private efforts to reduce healthcare-acquired conditions and readmissions, and a draft strategy for aligning physician performance measurement across federal programs. Authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, MAP is a public-private partnership convened by the National Quality Forum to provide input to the Department of Health and Human Services on selecting and aligning performance measures for public reporting and performance-based payment programs, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Value-Based Purchasing Program and Physician Quality Reporting Initiative.

The partnership will accept comments on the draft reports through Sept. 12. It plans to provide pre-rulemaking input to HHS in February 2012, based on a list of measures that HHS will post in December.

American Hospital Association Trustee Rhonda Anderson, CEO of Cardon Children's Medical Center in Mesa, AZ, serves on the MAP Coordinating Committee.

CMS extends submission deadline for two outpatient quality measures

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has extended to Nov. 1 the deadline for hospitals to submit data for two structural measures in the hospital outpatient quality reporting program. “AHA is pleased that CMS has chosen to extend the deadline since several hundred hospitals have not yet responded on these measures,” said Nancy Foster, American Hospital Association vice president for quality and patient safety policy.

One of the measures is required to receive a full annual payment update for fiscal year 2012, while the other measure is voluntary. The required measure indicates whether providers with health information technology can receive laboratory data electronically directly into their qualified/certified electronic health record system as discrete searchable data.

The voluntary measure indicates whether the provider uses a certified EHR to track clinical results between visits. Data for the two measures originally was due Aug. 15.

The new deadline corresponds with the program’s deadline for submission of chart-abstracted data. Foster urged hospitals to make sure they have submitted the required information on these two measures now, and not to wait for the November deadline. For more information, contact the program’s support contractor at (866) 800-8756 or http://cms-ocsq.custhelp.com/.

Guide shares quality improvement lessons from allied associations

A new guide from the American Hospital Association's Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence initiative summarizes lessons learned from allied hospital associations that submitted applications for the inaugural Dick Davidson Quality Milestone Award for Allied Association Leadership. The guide explores evidence-based performance improvement initiatives launched by the associations and the common elements in their successful implementation among hospitals and health systems. The award was presented last month to the Iowa Hospital Association and Washington State Hospital Association.

HQA updates Hospital Compare data

The Hospital Quality Alliance on Aug. 5 updated the Hospital Compare Web site with the latest hospital inpatient and outpatient quality data, including the yearly update of 30-day readmission and mortality rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia inpatients. Also new is the inclusion of readmission and mortality data for Department of Veterans Affairs' medical centers.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the national mortality and readmission rates for heart attack were slightly lower this year, while the rates for heart failure and pneumonia were slightly higher. In addition, most inpatient experience of care measures have improved since hospitals began reporting on them two years ago, the agency said.

HQA, whose members include the American Hospital Association, is a national public-private collaboration of hospital groups, consumer representatives, physician and nursing organizations, employers and payers, oversight organizations and government agencies dedicated to encouraging hospitals to voluntarily collect and make public quality of care information. Also, CMS added a Quality Care Finder tool to www.Medicare.gov, which links to Hospital Compare and other Medicare quality reporting websites.