Surgery Final Report - Fall 2020 Cycle 

The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) portfolio of Surgery measures includes measures for perioperative safety; general surgery, and a range of specialties, including cardiac, cardiothoracic, colorectal, ocular, orthopedic, urogynecology, and vascular surgery. During the fall 2020 measure evaluation cycle, the Surgery Standing Committee evaluated eight measures undergoing maintenance endorsement review against NQF’s standard evaluation criteria: two process measures focused on preoperative beta blockade and use of internal mammary artery (IMA) in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG); two outcome measures focused on the risk-standardized complication rates and readmission rates following elective primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) and/or total knee arthroplasty (TKA); and three composite measures are related to cardiac surgery, valve repair/replacement, and CABG. The Standing Committee recommended seven measures for endorsement and one measure for endorsement with reserve status. The Consensus Standards Approval Committee (CSAC) upheld the Standing Committee’s recommendation for the seven recommended measures. The measure recommended for inactive reserve status will retain its endorsement status during the review of the reserve status policy and performance gap criteria by a CSAC-recommended advisory board.