Access the Final Report:National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care: 2005 Update
The Opportunity
The National Diabetes Quality Improvement Alliance (the Alliance) issued its first performance measure set for adult diabetes care in 2002,1and NQF endorsed those measures as voluntary consensus standards in the same year.
Both the Alliance and NQF are committed to reviewing and updating measures on a regular basis so that the measures reflect the rapidly changing nature of healthcare, new scientific information, evolving clinical guidelines, and feedback from NQF Members and other experts. Accordingly, in January 2005, the Alliance approved an updated set of measures, which were subsequently submitted to NQF for consideration under its Consensus Development Process. NQF evaluated these measures and in 2005 endorsed an updated set of voluntary consensus standards for diabetes. The measures are intended to promote both public accountability and quality improvement.
Statistics
Diabetes is one of this country’s most common and costly medical conditions. An estimated 18.2 million Americans—6.3 percent of the population—have diabetes, and the direct and indirect costs of the disease are estimated to be approximately $132 billion per year.2 Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death for Americans overall, and it exacts an even greater burden on certain racial and ethnic minority populations, who are more likely to suffer serious complications, such as amputation and end-stage renal disease, and to die from the disease.3 Improved quality of care for those with diabetes would benefit a large and growing segment of the U.S. population. Diabetes is one of the National Quality Forum (NQF)-endorsed™ priorities for healthcare quality measurement and reporting.3
About the Project
This project was completed in 2005.
Results
This 2005 update reflects a set of 38 consensus standards, compared with the 2002 version’s 37 NQF-endorsed consensus standards. Additionally, detailed technical specifications are now available on how to calculate the measures, while no specifications were available when the 2002 consensus standards were endorsed.
Process
The NQF Adult Diabetes Care Consensus Standards Maintenance Committee reviewed the proposed changes and additions to the set endorsed by NQF in 2002 and recommended that all of the Alliance’s public reporting and quality improvement measures approved in 2005 and the three AHRQ PQIs be forwarded to NQF Members for consideration under the Consensus Development Process (CDP) as an update to the existing set of NQF-endorsed adult diabetes care consensus standards. Some of the Alliance measures recommended by the Committee were not proposed for NQF endorsement, however. A detailed commentary of the Committee’s discussions is provided in appendix E of the report. The Board endorsed 38 consensus standards.
Related NQF Work
National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Adult Diabetes Care
Contact Information
For more information please call 202-783-1300 or email info@qualityforum.org
Notes
1Technical specifications for the Alliance measures were developed and are maintained and owned by AMA for the quality improvement measures and NCQA for the public reporting measures.
2American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org.
3Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999 Diabetes Surveillance Report, www.cdc.gov.
This project updated the NQF-endorsed 2002 Adult Diabetes Care measure set. The update reflects a set of 38 consensus standards, compared with the 2002 version’s 37 NQF-endorsed consensus standards. Additionally, detailed technical specifications are now available on how to calculate the measures, while no specifications were available when the 2002 consensus standards were endorsed.
