NQF Approves Expansion of Settings for Nursing Home Measures 

Washington, DC - the National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors has approved an expansion of settings for two nursing home measures: #0680, Percent of Nursing Home Residents Who Were Assessed and Appropriately Given the Seasonal Influenza Vaccine (Short-Stay); and #0682, Percent of Residents Assessed and Appropriately Given the Pneumococcal Vaccine (Short-Stay).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the measure steward, expanded the measures beyond the nursing home setting to include inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term acute care hospitals. The ad-hoc review request fell under the third NQF criterion for justifying a review: material changes to a currently endorsed measure.

Technical experts were convened to assess the proposed measure changes and agreed to recommend expansion of both measures given the following reasons: the age range was expanded to reflect current evidence; the time window was made consistent with standard specifications and harmonized with other NQF-endorsed measures; data on the validity was provided; and the measure submission form was modified to ensure that the documentation supports the changes made.

NQF is a voluntary consensus standards-setting organization. Any party may request reconsideration of these measures by submitting an appeal no later than June 5. To submit an appeal, please email appeals@qualityforum.org. For an appeal to be considered, the notification must include information clearly demonstrating that the appellant has interests directly and materially affected by the NQF-endorsed recommendations and that the NQF decision has had (or will have) an adverse effect on those interests.

NQF operates under a three-part mission to improve the quality of American healthcare by: 

• building consensus on national priorities and goals for performance improvement and working in partnership to achieve them;  
• endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance; and  
• promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.