The Opportunity
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released Common Formats for Event Reporting – Diagnostic Safety (CFER-DS) Version 0.1 for public review and comment.
The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act) provides for AHRQ to develop standardized reporting formats using common language and definitions (Common Formats) for reporting on health care quality and patient safety that will ensure that data collected by PSOs and other entities have comparable clinical meaning. The Common Formats facilitate aggregation of comparable data at local, PSO, regional and national levels. In addition, the Common Formats are intended to enhance the reporting of information that is standardized both clinically and electronically.
The CFER-DS is the first AHRQ Common Formats for Event Reporting that can be used across healthcare settings. It is designed to capture standardized data to facilitate the reporting of diagnostic safety events for the purpose of learning about how to improve diagnostic safety and better support clinicians in the diagnostic process.
About the Project
NQF, on behalf of AHRQ, is coordinating a process to obtain comments from stakeholders about the Common Formats authorized by the Patient Safety Act. The Agency has contracted with NQF to assist with gathering and analyzing feedback. The public has an opportunity to comment on all elements of the Common Formats using the NQF commenting tools. An NQF Expert Panel will review the public comments and provide recommendations to AHRQ.
AHRQ appreciates the time and effort individuals invest in providing comments. All feedback received will be reviewed and considered to guide the development of a revised version.
To view Common Formats for Event Reporting – Diagnostic Safety Version 0.1 and post comments through the NQF tool, go to the Commenting Tool.
NQF continues to take comments on Common Formats for Event Reporting – Hospital Version 2.0 and Version 1.2, Common Formats for Event Reporting – Nursing Home Version 1.0, Common Formats – Community Pharmacy Version 1.0, and Common Formats for Surveillance – Hospital Version 0.3 Beta.
For more information about the Common Formats, visit the AHRQ website at https://www.pso.ahrq.gov/common. The complete set of Common Formats, including generic and event-specific Common Formats, can be found at https://www.psoppc.org/psoppc_web/publicpages/commonFormatsOverview.
Objectives
The main objectives of the Common Formats are to:
- standardize patient safety event data collection, and
- permit aggregation of collected data for pattern analysis, learning, and trending of patient safety concerns.
NQF's Common Formats project enables AHRQ to receive and respond to stakeholder input and to receive expert guidance on refining the Common Formats.
Process
NQF has established a process and tools for receiving comments on the Common Formats beginning with the release of each set and version and continuing for a specified period thereafter.
The NQF Expert Panel will continue to use relevant elements of NQF’s Consensus Development Process to receive and review comments on new and updated sets of the Common Formats; however, the process will not involve voting or endorsement of any product.
Funding
Funding for this project has been provided through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Contact Information
For more information, contact 202-783-1300 or commonformats@qualityforum.org.