Hospital Care: Specialty Clinician Measures
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Project Status: Completed
National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Specialty Clinician
Access the Final Report: National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Specialty Clinician Measures
The Opportunity
In the past several years, the public reporting of healthcare quality information has blossomed, with a variety of performance measures being used to assess the quality of care across settings and clinical areas. This movement initially focused on acute care hospitals—and was enhanced by the National Quality Forum’s (NQF’s) endorsement of 39 hospital-level voluntary consensus standards in 2002—but has led to increased interest in information about the quality of physician performance. To meet that need, NQF has endorsed 86 clinician-level ambulatory care performance measures and 7 patient experience with care measures that are specific to ambulatory care.
Yet not all aspects of care in the ambulatory setting have benefited equally from measure development and use. Specifically, measurement of the performance of specialty care providers has been neglected. Gaps have also emerged in hospital-based measure sets, particularly in the area of specialty clinician (physician and other licensed independent practitioners) hospital care.
Rationale
About the Project
This project was completed by June 2007.
Outcomes
This report details 26 national voluntary consensus standards for hospital care quality endorsed by NQF. Some of these standards have been endorsed by NQF for other circumstances, but their endorsement for this setting represents a significant contribution to existing nationally standardized performance measures to assess the quality of care provided in hospitals and by clinicians.
Process
Candidate measures were considered for NQF endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards. Agreement was developed through NQF’s Consensus Development Process (CDP, version 1.8). This project involved the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders and is guided by a steering committee.
Funding
This work was conducted under a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, (grant #HHSM-500-2006-000271).
Related NQF Work
Standardizing Ambulatory Care Performance Measures
National Voluntary Consensus Standards For Ambulatory Care Using Clinically Enriched Administrative Data
For more information, contact Lisa Hines at 202.783.1300 or info@qualityforum.org.
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed consensus standards in a variety of settings, including hospitals, home health, nursing homes, and ambulatory practices. This report complements this work by identifying measures appropriate for use at the clinician level. The report details 26 national voluntary consensus standards for specialty clinician care provided in the hospital setting.
The project Steering Committee, representing the full range of stakeholder perspectives, was formed following the process set forth in NQF’s Consensus Development Process. Nominations were accepted from May 8 through June 6.
The Technical Advisory Panels (TAPs) handled the technical evaluation of the candidate measures in the four specialty areas: four areas: emergency care; cardiac surgery; perioperative care; and stroke and stroke rehabilitation. The TAPs also made recommendations to the Steering Committee on the scientific acceptability of the measure properties. Also, it provided general guidance on evaluating the scientific acceptability of outcome measures. TAP nominations were accepted during the same period.
NQF received 37 measures to review for potential endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards. Submissions were accepted from August 21 through September 23.
The Steering Committee met in person and by conference call numerous times from January through April 2007. They reviewed all submissions and communicated with measure developers as needed to determine the measures to recommend for endorsement. Following this review period, the recommended measures were made available for public and member comment.
A draft report and supporting materials were made available prior to the voting period.
The CSAC review for this project is not yet scheduled.
