Skip to main content

COPD: inhaled bronchodilator therapy

CBE ID
0102
Project
Pulmonary and Critical Care
Endorsed
Endorsement and Maintenance (E&M) Cycle
Full Year 2015
Is Under Review
No
Measure Description

Percentage of patients aged 18 years or older, with a diagnosis of COPD (FEV1/FVC < 70%) who have an FEV1 < 60% predicted and have symptoms who were prescribed an inhaled bronchodilator

  • Measure Type
    Process
    Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM)
    No
    Level Of Analysis
    Clinician: Group/Practice
    Care Setting
    Outpatient Services
    Numerator

    Patients who were prescribed an inhaled bronchodilator

    Denominator

    All patients aged 18 years and older with a diagnosis of COPD, who have FEV1/FVC < 70%, FEV1 <60% predicted and have symptoms (eg, dyspnea, cough/sputum, wheezing)

    Exclusions

    ATS continues to use the PCPI exception methodology that uses three categories of exception reasons for which a patient may be removed from the denominator of an individual measure: medical, patient and system reasons.

    Exceptions are used to remove patients from the denominator of a performance measure when a patient does not receive a therapy or service AND that therapy or service would not be appropriate due to specific reasons; otherwise, the patient would meet the denominator criteria. Exceptions are not absolute, and the application of exceptions is based on clinical judgment, individual patient characteristics, or patient preferences. These measure exception categories are not uniformly relevant across all measures; for each measure, there must be a clear rationale to permit an exception for a medical, patient, or system reason. Examples are provided in the measure exception language of instances that may constitute an exception and are intended to serve as a guide to clinicians. For this measure, exceptions include medical reason(s), patient reason(s) or system reason(s) for not prescribing inhaled bronchodilators. Although this methodology does not require the external reporting of more detailed exception data, the ATS recommends that physicians document the specific reasons for exception in patients’ medical records for purposes of optimal patient management and audit-readiness.

    Testing Data Sources
    Claims Data
    Registry data
  • Most Recent Endorsement Activity
    Endorsed with Reserve Status Pulmonary and Critical Care Project 2015-2016
    Initial Endorsement
    Endorsement Status
    Endorsed with Reserve Status
    Last Updated
  • Steward
    American Thoracic Society
    Steward Organization Email
    [email protected]
    Steward Organization Copyright

    The Measures are not clinical guidelines, do not establish a standard of medical care, and have not been tested for all potential applications.

    The Measures, while copyrighted, can be reproduced and distributed, without modification, for noncommercial purposes, e.g., use by health care providers in connection with their practices. Commercial use is defined as the sale, license, or distribution of the Measures for commercial gain, or incorporation of the Measures into a product or service that is sold, licensed or distributed for commercial gain.

    Commercial uses of the Measures require a license agreement between the user and the PCPI® Foundation (PCPI®) or the American Thoracic Society (ATS). Neither ATS, nor the American Medical Association (AMA), nor the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement® (AMA-PCPI), now known as PCPI, nor their members shall be responsible for any use of the Measures.

    The AMA’s and AMA-PCPI’s significant past efforts and contributions to the development and updating of the Measures is acknowledged. ATS is solely responsible for the review and enhancement (“Maintenance”) of the Measures as of September 8, 2014.

    ATS encourages use of the Measures by other health care professionals, where appropriate.

    THE MEASURES AND SPECIFICATIONS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

    © 2015 PCPI® Foundation and American Thoracic Society. All Rights Reserved.

    Limited proprietary coding is contained in the Measure specifications for convenience. Users of the proprietary code sets should obtain all necessary licenses from the owners of these code sets. ATS, the AMA, the PCPI and its members and former members of the AMA-PCPI disclaim all liability for use or accuracy of any Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) or other coding contained in the specifications.

    CPT® contained in the Measures specifications is copyright 2004-2015 American Medical Association. LOINC® copyright 2004-2015 Regenstrief Institute, Inc. SNOMED CLINICAL TERMS (SNOMED CT®) copyright 2004-2015 The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO). ICD-10 is copyright 2015 World Health Organization. All Rights Reserved.