NQMC - What's New This Week

What's New This Week

Notice to our Users - We've Resumed Publishing

We are pleased to announce that the National Guideline Clearinghouse and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse have completed the transition to a new content management system. We have resumed publishing new/updated content. As noted previously, this new system will serve as the foundation for the redesigned Web sites to be launched next year. We appreciate your patience over the past few weeks as we transitioned to our new system.

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.

November 2, 2009

Measures Published this Week

Australian Council on Healthcare Standards

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB) rate: percentage of adult intensive care units (ICU)-associated centrally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (CI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB) rate: percentage of adult intensive care units (ICU)-associated peripherally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (PI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB) rate: percentage of paediatric intensive care unit (ICU)-associated centrally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (CI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of haematology unit-related centrally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (CI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of haematology unit-related peripherally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (PI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of oncology unit-related centrally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (CI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of oncology unit-related peripherally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (PI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of outpatient intravenous therapy (OPIV) unit-related centrally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (CI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of outpatient intravenous therapy (OPIV) unit-related peripherally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (PI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-associated blood stream infection (CLAB): percentage of paediatric intensive care unit (ICU)-associated peripherally-inserted central line-associated blood stream infection (PI-CLAB), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-utilisation ratio (CLUR): number of centrally-inserted (CI) central line-days per patient-days in adult intensive care unit (ICU), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-utilisation ratio (CLUR): number of centrally-inserted (CI) central line-days per patient-days in paediatric intensive care unit (ICU), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-utilisation ratio (CLUR): number of peripherally-inserted (PI) central line-days per patient-days in adult intensive care unit (ICU), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Central line-utilisation ratio (CLUR): number of peripherally-inserted (PI) central line-days per patient-days in paediatric intensive care unit (ICU), during the 6 month time period. This updates a previously published measure summary.

Measures Withdrawn this Week

The measures listed below have been withdrawn from the NQMC Web site at the request of the measure developer. Please see the Measure Archive for a complete list of all measures that have been withdrawn from the NQMC Web site.

Manitoba Centre for Health Policy

Childhood immunization: percentage of patients who received their primary course of immunizations (i.e., DPT-HiB, polio x4, and MMR) by age 24 months.

Influenza vaccination: percentage of patients aged 65 years or older who received at least one influenza vaccine in the past two years.

Cervical cancer screening: percentage of female patients aged 18 to 60 years who had not undergone a hysterectomy, and who had at least one Papaniculaou (Pap) test in the last three years.

Cholesterol screening: percentage of male patients aged 40 years or older and female patients aged 50 years or older who had at least one cholesterol screening test in the last five years.

Blood sugar screening: percentage of patients aged 48 years or older who had at least one blood sugar test in the previous three years.

Anticoagulant medication management: percentage of patients with a 30-day supply (or more) of anticoagulants who had at least one blood clotting test per each 45-day period.

Antidepressant prescription follow-up: percentage of patients with a new prescription for an antidepressant associated with a depression diagnosis (within two weeks of each other) who had three subsequent ambulatory visits within four months of the prescription being filled.

Asthma care: percentage of patients with an asthma diagnosis (defined as one repeat prescription of a beta 2-agonist in the past year) who filled a prescription for medications recommended for long-term control of asthma (i.e., inhaled corticosteroids or leukotriene modifiers, and alternate anti-inflammatory medication).

Benzodiazepines: percentage of patients aged 75 years or older with prescription(s) for two or more benzodiazepines or prescriptions for greater than a 30-day supply of medication.

Diabetes care: percentage of diabetic patients (defined as those who had at least one drug used to treat diabetes) who had a cholesterol screening test in the same fiscal year as the prescription.

Diabetes care: percentage of diabetic patients (defined as those who had at least one drug used to treat diabetes) who saw either an optometrist or ophthalmologist in the same fiscal year as the prescription.

Post-myocardial infarction care: percentage of patients discharged alive from hospital in the preceding three years with a discharge diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI) (excluding those with prior diagnosis of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] or peripheral vascular disease) who filled at least one prescription for a beta-blocker within four months of the first infarction.

Coming Soon

More updated Australian Council for Healthcare Standards (ACHS) Infection Control Indicators. Look for these measures in NQMC in the near future!

Health Awareness Topics - November 2009

American Diabetes Month (see related measures)
COPD Awareness Month (see related measures)
Diabetic Eye Disease Month (see related measures)
Lung Cancer Awareness Month (see related measures)
National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month (see related measure)
National Family Caregivers Month (see related measure)
National Healthy Skin Month (see related measures)
National Hospice Palliative Care Month (see related measures)
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month (see related 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.

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.

Questions and suggestions about the "What's New" feature are welcome. E-mail NQMC at info@qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov.

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