NQMC - Resources - Naming Measures

Naming Measures

Background

The National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC), sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recognized during the developmental phase of NQMC, that the titles of measures varied significantly across measure developers. Examining the structure of titles from each measure developer indicated that there was no standardized method of naming measures.

In order to capture the salient components of a measure in its title and to produce continuity in style for presentation purposes on the Web site, naming conventions were developed for each of the four domains of measurement (Access, Outcome, Patient Experience, Process, Structure) in NQMC. Each measure submitted and accepted into NQMC is renamed following the NQMC naming conventions described below.

Approach

There are three naming conventions for measures in the Outcome, Patient Experience, and Process domains, and one naming convention for measures in the Access and Structure domains. For the domains with more than one naming convention, every attempt is made to rename a measure using the first naming convention (Convention 1). In instances where Convention 1 does not apply, the measure is renamed using Convention 2, and subsequently using Convention 3 when the second convention is not applicable.

The NQMC measure name is a synthesized form of the original measure name and/or measure description. Measures that are used to assess quality for distinct populations include a description of the populations in their NQMC name. NQMC has also captured the original name of the measure in the "ORIGINAL TITLE" field, found in both the Brief Summary and Complete Summary, to facilitate identification of developers' measures.

Measure Naming Conventions

The NQMC Measure Naming Conventions are listed below, along with examples, by domain of measurement.

Domain	Conventions
Access	Access topic/clinical service topic/clinical specialty: metric plus description of the clinical service provided or the access issue Example: Clinic appointment waiting time: average time in days between the scheduling date and the appointment date.
Outcome	Convention 1 Disease/condition: metric plus description of outcome Example: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI): percentage of inpatient deaths.
	Convention 2 Clinical topic: metric plus description of outcome Example: Tobacco cessation: percent of patients currently not using tobacco (Primary Care Cohort).
	Convention 3 Patient group: metric plus description of outcome Patient group refers to a specific patient population such as the Frail Elderly, Medically Uninsured, or Children. NQMC has not yet encountered an outcome measure that does not address a disease/condition or a clinical topic.
Patient Experience	Convention 1 Disease/condition or clinical topic: metric plus treatment/intervention Example: Well-child care: mean score on helpfulness and effectiveness of all information received from health providers and health plans.
	Convention 2 Patient experience topic: metric plus treatment/intervention Example: Communication and experience of care: mean score on seven items asking about helpfulness of office staff, overall rating of care and whether doctor/other providers listen carefully, explain things clearly, respect you, spend enough time.
	Convention 3 Patient group: metric plus treatment/intervention Patient group refers to a specific patient population such as the Frail Elderly, Medically Uninsured, or Children. NQMC has not yet encountered a patient experience measure that does not address a disease/condition or a clinical topic.
Process	Convention 1 Disease/condition: metric plus treatment/intervention Example: Major depressive disorder: percent of patients screened for depression.
	Convention 2 Clinical topic: metric plus treatment/intervention Example: Tobacco cessation: percent of patients screened annually for use of tobacco (Mental Health Diagnosis Cohort).
	Convention 3 Patient group: metric plus treatment/intervention Patient group refers to a specific patient population such as the Frail Elderly, Medically Uninsured, or Children. NQMC has not yet encountered a process measure that does not address a disease/condition or a clinical topic.
Structure	Structural feature: description of metric Example: Competency Assessment Instrument (CAI): provider's mean score on the "Goals" scale.

Send questions regarding NQMC's measure naming conventions to info@qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov.

Naming Measures

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Measure Naming Conventions

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