The National Quality Forum has published a standard set of clinical data elements to measure quality performance that electronic health records should be able to capture across all care settings.

It will make it easier to compare healthcare providers’ reports on their performance in quality measures, said Dr. Paul Tang, chairman of NQF’s Health IT Expert Panel that drafted the data set.

By providing a common language to describe the information within quality measures, the Quality Data Set enables quality measurement from a variety of electronic sources, including electronic health records, personal health records, registries and health information exchanges.

Tang, who is also the vice chairman of the Health IT Policy Committee, a public-private panel that advises the national health IT coordinator, told Government Health IT that the committee may consider the Quality Data Set for future meaningful use recommendations.

“An electronic health record [system] would be certified to contain data elements in the Quality Data Set to be used in meaningful use measures,” Tang said.

The data set framework consists of standard elements or a code list for a specific condition such as diabetes; quality data elements or information describing the context of use such as a past history of diabetes; and data flow attributes or the care setting providing the information.

“Providing a common data resource for all stakeholders in the quality-measures supply chain will allow us to align our efforts and improve the comparability of quality reports while dramatically reducing the burden of quality measurement,” Tang said.

Providers have collected and reported their healthcare performance data largely through a manual process. With the Quality Data Set, measure developers will now have common data definitions and conventions to use when specifying measures for  electronic health records, said Janet Corrigan, NQF president and CEO.

This work was conducted under a contract from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

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Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, said yesterday his office will explain “in the coming weeks” how it will define a “certified” electronic health record,” which providers must purchase in order to qualify for new federal health IT incentive payments.

In an e-mail message, Blumenthal gave a preview of what further guidance providers should expect in coming months as his office works with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to finalize the set of requirements for “meaningful use.”

Under the health IT stimulus legislation, providers who are meaningful users of certified health IT will be eligible to receive increased Medicare and Medicaid payments.

“As efforts advance, we will turn our attention to other necessary supporting programs, some of which you will hear more about in the coming weeks, including defining what constitutes a ‘certified’ EHR, which is one of the requirements to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentives,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal said his office will also outline programs aimed at smoothing the transition process and identify steps that physicians and hospitals can take now to promote adoption of EHRs.

While awaiting the CMS rule, he urged providers to become “as familiar as possible” with the discussion of meaningful use criteria in the recommendations of the Health IT Policy and Standards committees, two panels advising Blumenthal.

The policy committee completed its second set of recommendations on meaningful use in July. “Be assured you will not be alone as you seek to adopt an EHR system,” Blumenthal wrote, citing grants for regional extension centers that would assist providers in establishing an EHR system.

The public will be able to comment on the definition, and CMS will consider those comments before the rule is finalized in early 2010. Any formal definition of meaningful use will include specific activities that health care providers need to perform to qualify for the incentives, he said.

Eligible physicians can receive up to $44,000 over five years under Medicare or $63,750 over six years under Medicaid for being meaningful users of certified EHRs.  Hospitals could receive up to four years of financial incentive payments under Medicare beginning in 2011, and up to six years of incentive payments under Medicaid beginning in October 2010.

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