Access the Final Report: Child Health Quality Measures 2010 Final Report
The Opportunity
Child health quality is an important, underemphasized area of measure development and endorsement. To date, NQF has endorsed more than 70 pediatric and perinatal measures. The set of NQF endorsed measures has steadily risen over the last several years, with emphasis in the areas of perinatal and neonatal care, chronic illness care, and care for hospitalized children.
In November 2009, NQF convened a Child Health Outcomes Steering Committee to identify, evaluate, and endorse additional measures suitable for public reporting and quality improvement that specifically address outcomes of child health. This project included both cross-cutting and condition-specific outcome measures. The Child Health Outcomes Project also identified gaps in existing outcome measures.
The recent release of an initial core set of measures for Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) voluntary use provides an important step in assessing child health quality by state programs. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality National Advisory Council Subcommittee on Children’s Healthcare Quality Measures for Medicaid and CHIP Programs (ARHQ SNAC) recently identified a number of priority areas for children without adequate measures, including mental health and substance abuse services, other specialty services, and inpatient care. Measures in key gap areas such as quality of well child care, dental care, and acute care for children, were highlighted. This consensus project will complement the AHRQ SNAC collaboration with the Center for Medicaid, CHIP, and Survey and Certification. While the initial core set of CHIPRA (Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act) measures will be prescribed (or specified) by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, there may be other appropriate measures that may enhance the portfolio of child health quality measures and could be used in the future for the pediatric quality measurement program as required by CHIPRA.
In this call, NQF would like to target measures that could be used in public reporting at the population level (e.g., state) and for the following conditions or cross-cutting areas applicable to the Medicaid population.
- respiratory issues such as asthma;
- overweight/obese;
- well child care;
- prevention and screening (e.g., immunizations, developmental delay);
- diabetes;
- prenatal/perinatal care;
- access to care (e.g., well-child care visits, access to primary care practitioners, emergency room utilization);
- oral health (e.g., access to services, dental caries);
- inpatient safety (e.g., pediatric catheter associated blood stream infection rates);
- mental health (e.g. depression, behavior problems, anxiety, ADHD); and
- patient experience with care.
About the Project
This project began in July 2010.
Process
The candidate measures will be considered for NQF endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards. Agreement will be developed through NQF’s Consensus Development Process (CDP, Version 1.8). This project involves the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders.
Project Funding
This project is funded under NQF's Department of Health and Human Services contract, Consensus-based Entities Regarding Healthcare Performance Measurement.
Related NQF Projects
Contact Information
For more information, contact Suzanne Theberge, MPH at 202-783-1300 or via e-mail at childhealth@qualityforum.org.
Child health quality is an important, though under-emphasized area of measure development and endorsement. This project will target measures that could be used in public reporting at the population level on a range of topics, including prevention and screening, access to care, safety, prenatal/perinatal care, and patient experience with care.
NQF issued a Call for Intent to submit candidate standards for Child Health Quality Measures. Notices of intent closed on July 28, 2010.
The Steering Committee convened for the 2010 Child Health Outcomes project will serve as the committee for this project. However, NQF sought additional members of the committee and/or Technical Advisory Panels (TAPs) to address specific topics.
The Call for Nominations for additional committee and panel members closed on August 30, 2010. For more information on the committee formation process, please refer to the Call for Nominations instructions.
NQF Members and the public had 14 days to review the roster of submitted nominees. The review period closed on October 11, 2010.
The Steering Committee will begin meeting in November 2010 to evaluate the submissions and prepare the draft report.
The Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) met via conference call on October 18, 2010.
The Steering Committee met in person in Washington, DC on November 8-9, 2010.
Measures discussed:
The Child Health Quality Measures Steering Committee met via conference call on November 29, 2010. This was the first of a three-part series of meetings occurring through the end of the year.
The Child Health Quality Measures Steering Committee met via conference call on December 3, 2010. This was the second of a three-part series of meetings occurring through the end of the year.
The Steering Committee met via conference call on December 17, 2010. This is the third of a three-part series of meetings occurring through the end of the year.
The Steering Committee met via conference call on January 10, 2011 to continue discussions from the previous meetings.
Members had 30 days to submit their vote.
The draft report has been revised based on the comments received during the Public and Member Comment and consultation with the Steering Committee. Member voting closed on May 24, 2011.
The public had 30 days to appeal the final decision to endorse a
voluntary consensus standard. Any party could request reconsideration of
the recommendations, in whole or in part, by notifying NQF. The appeals period closed on September 13, 2011.
The public had 30 days to appeal the final decision to endorse a
voluntary consensus standard. Any party could request reconsideration of
the recommendations, in whole or in part, by notifying NQF. The appeals period closed on October 18, 2011.
