CHIME to AHRQ: Quality reporting automatization a long-term goal
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Choosing to share general thoughts on the RFI rather than specific points, CHIME President and CEO Richard A. Correll and Drex DeFord, CIO of Boston-based Steward Healthcare, penned a letter to AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD.
“The accurate reporting of electronic quality measures is one of the most daunting challenges face by providers today,” read the Aug. 23 letter. “Through our experiences with meaningful use and other quality reporting programs, we found that although EHR products were able to automatically produce clinical quality measurement (CQM) reports, the data was inaccurate, inconsistent and largely incomparable across different providers.”
Most quality measurement activities are currently conducted through manual chart abstraction and the analysis of administrative claims, a heavy workload that can strain provider resources. Given this reality, CHIME suggested that AHRQ focus on defining the next steps for providers. Complete automatization is an admirable goal, but unlikely in the near term and AHRQ should strive for incremental improvements.
CHIME reiterated its historical support for harmonization among CQM reporting across all Department of Health and Human Service agencies and programs, specifically addressing harmonization through the specific CQM, how the CQM is reported and to whom it is reported. AHRQ should look to the National Quality Forum’s quality data model and measure authoring tool as resources that could promote harmonization, the letter stated.
“CHIME would encourage AHRQ, as a function of their research on health IT-enable quality measurement, to focus on the kinds of technology and workflow processes that can even support abstractors’ efforts to develop accurate clinical quality measures,” Correll and DeFord concluded. “Today’s CQMs measure process steps, not outcomes. Many of them are intermediate steps towards something that can truly describe the quality of care delivered.”