Call for Measures: National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Medication Managment

In this project, NQF is soliciting both process and outcome medication management measures that may be able to assess the impact of appropriate medication management on proper utilization of potentially preventable services, such as hospitalizations and emergency department visits.  Candidate measures would specifically include key aspects of medication prescribing, medication appropriateness and use, and monitoring.  Specific considerations would include prescribing patterns, appropriate laboratory monitoring, safety considerations, and patient self-management through medication management.  The project will consider measures for use at the individual clinician, group, facility, health plan, and health system levels. Harmonization of similar measures, particularly across settings, will be a priority of this project.  The measures should be suitable for public reporting.

This “Call” solicits candidate measures for review, evaluation, and potential endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards for medication management.  NQF is formally soliciting both performance and outcome measures for medication management that address pressing quality issues including, but not limited to appropriate monitoring, improvement of current prescribing patterns, and improvement of disease-specific therapy.

Any organization or individual may submit measures for consideration.  To be included as part of the initial evaluation, candidate consensus standards must meet the following general criteria:

• be fully developed for use (e.g., research and testing have been completed);
• be open source or in the public domain*
• have an identified measure steward **
• be intended for both public reporting and quality improvement

To submit a measure, please complete the following:

• Measure Submission Form, Version 3.0
• Intellectual Property Agreement

Materials should be submitted via email attachment to medicationmanagement@qualityforum.org. All measure submission forms must be submitted by 6:00 pm, ET on Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

For more information, contact Kristyne McGuinn at 202.783.1300, or by email at medicationmanagement@qualityforum.org.

 

* NQF requires any organization submitting a measure for endorsement to execute an intellectual property agreement that addresses disclosure of the measure’s proprietary components, including but not limited to specifications, risk adjustment methodologies, data collection instrument, data collection or analysis software, and database access. For details, please see our Policy on Endorsement of Proprietary Measures

** NQF requires any measure considered for endorsement to have an identified responsible entity and process to maintain and update the measure on a schedule commensurate with clinical innovation, but at least every 3 years