What's New This Week

HHS Measure Inventory The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is committed to providing the public an inventory of the measures that are currently being used by the Divisions in HHS for quality measurement, improvement, and reporting. NEW: The HHS Measure Inventory now has additional browse and search features!

June 29, 2009

Australian Council on Healthcare Standards

Cancellation of booked procedures: percentage of patients booked into a day procedure facility who fail to arrive, during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Cancellation of booked procedures: percentage of patients booked into a day procedure facility, whose procedure is cancelled after their arrival at the facility, due to a pre-existing medical condition, during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Cancellation of booked procedures: percentage of patients booked into a day procedure facility, whose procedure is cancelled after their arrival at the facility, due to administrative/organisational reasons, during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Cancellation of booked procedures: percentage of patients booked into a day procedure facility, whose procedure is cancelled after their arrival at the facility, due to an acute medical condition, during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

National Committee for Quality Assurance

Adolescent well-care visits: percentage of members 12 through 21 years of age who had at least one comprehensive well-care visit with a primary care practitioner (PCP) or an obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) practitioner during the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Adults' access to preventive/ambulatory health services: percentage of members 20 years and older who had an ambulatory or preventive care visit. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Annual monitoring for patients on persistent medications: percentage of members 18 years of age and older who received at least a 180-days supply of ambulatory medication therapy for ACEIs or ARBs during the measurement year and at least one serum potassium and either a serum creatinine or a blood urea nitrogen therapeutic monitoring test in the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Annual monitoring for patients on persistent medications: percentage of members 18 years of age and older who received at least a 180-days supply of ambulatory medication therapy for anticonvulsants during the measurement year and at least one drug serum concentration level monitoring test for the prescribed drug in the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Annual monitoring for patients on persistent medications: percentage of members 18 years of age and older who received at least a 180-days supply of ambulatory medication therapy for digoxin during the measurement year and at least one serum potassium and either a serum creatinine or a blood urea nitrogen therapeutic monitoring test in the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Annual monitoring for patients on persistent medications: percentage of members 18 years of age and older who received at least a 180-days supply of ambulatory medication therapy for diuretics during the measurement year and at least one serum potassium and either a serum creatinine or a blood urea nitrogen therapeutic monitoring test in the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Children and adolescents' access to primary care practitioners: percentage of members 12 months to 19 years of age who had a visit with a primary care practitioner. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Dental care: percentage of members 2 through 21 years of age who had at least one dental visit during the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Engagement of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment: percentage of members who initiated treatment and who had two or more additional services with an AOD diagnosis within 30 days of the initiation visit. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Frequency of ongoing prenatal care: percentage of Medicaid deliveries between November 6 of the year prior to the measurement year and November 5 of the measurement year that received less than 21%, 21% to 40%, 41% to 60%, 61% to 80%, or greater than or equal to 81% of the expected number of prenatal care visits. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Initiation of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment: percentage of adolescent and adult members who initiate treatment through an inpatient AOD admission, outpatient visit, intensive outpatient encounter, or partial hospitalization within 14 days of diagnosis. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Medication reconciliation post-discharge: percentage of discharges from January 1 to December 1 of the measurement year for members 65 years of age and older for whom medications were reconciled on or within 30 days of discharge.

Postpartum care: percentage of deliveries that had a postpartum visit on or between 21 and 56 days after delivery. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Potentially harmful drug-disease interactions in the elderly: percentage of Medicare members 65 years of age and older who have a diagnosis of chronic renal failure and prescription for non-aspirin NSAIDs or Cox-2 Selective NSAIDs. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Potentially harmful drug-disease interactions in the elderly: percentage of Medicare members 65 years of age and older who have a diagnosis of dementia and a prescription for tricyclic antidepressants or anticholinergic agents. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Potentially harmful drug-disease interactions in the elderly: percentage of Medicare members 65 years of age and older who have a history of falls and a prescription for tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics or sleep agents. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Timeliness of prenatal care: percentage of deliveries that received a prenatal care visit as a member of the organization in the first trimester or within 42 days of enrollment in the organization. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Use of high-risk medications in the elderly: percentage of Medicare members 65 years of age and older who received at least one high-risk medication. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Use of high-risk medications in the elderly: percentage of Medicare members 65 years of age and older who received at least two different high-risk medications. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Well-child visits in the first 15 months of life: percentage of members who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and who had the following number of well-child visits with a primary care practitioner (PCP) during their first 15 months of life: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six or more. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Well-child visits in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth years of life: percentage of members who were three to six years of age during the measurement year who received one or more well-child visits with a primary care practitioner (PCP) during the measurement year. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Coming Soon

• New American Society of Clinical Oncology/National Comprehensive Cancer Network quality measures on breast and colorectal cancers. Look for these measures in NQMC in the near future!

Newly Identified

• New AHRQ CAHPS Dental Plan Survey measures!

Conference News

• The 6th annual Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) conference, will be held November 1-4, 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal. Register online now. G-I-N conferences aim to bring together many colleagues from all over the world to develop collaborations with people from a wide range of organizations, through workshops, discussion, networking and informal sessions. The theme of the conference is "Evidence Translation in Different Countries." For further information and details, please visit the G-I-N Conference Web site.

Health Awareness Topics - June 2009

• National Aphasia Awareness Month (see related measure)
• Vision Research Month (see related measures)

How to Participate

• Submit measures: Visit our Submit Measures page for submission guidance and information about NQMC's submission process.
• Suggest a measure for possible inclusion: Submit your suggestions for evidence-based quality measures and measure sets that you would like to see included in NQMC and we will follow-up.

NQMC Sister Resources

Find Innovations and QualityTools classified by disease or clinical category, patient population, stage of care, setting of care, and more in AHRQ's Health Care Innovations Exchange Web site.

Look for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in AHRQ's National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC).

Other Resources

An archive of the weekly updates is also available. To locate a previous issue of "What's New This Week," go to the What's New Archive.

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