Emergency Department and Services

The measure assesses days spent in acute care within 30 days of discharge from an inpatient hospitalization for HF to provide a patient-centered assessment of the post-discharge period. This measure is intended to capture the quality of care transitions provided to discharged patients who had a HF hospitalization by collectively measuring a set of adverse acute care outcomes that can occur post-discharge: emergency department (ED) visits, observation stays, and unplanned readmissions at any time during the 30 days post-discharge.

This measure assesses the degree to which the organization initiates and engages members identified with a need for alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse and dependence services and the degree to which members initiate and continue treatment once the need has been identified. Two rates are reported:

Median time from emergency department arrival to time of departure from the emergency room for patients admitted to the facility from the emergency department

NQF #0496 calculates the median time from emergency department arrival to time of departure from the emergency room for patients discharged from the emergency department (ED). The measure is calculated using chart-abstracted data, on a rolling quarterly basis, and is publically reported in aggregate for one calendar year. The measure has been publically reported since 2013 as part of the ED Throughput measure set of the CMS’ Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (HOQR) Program.

This measure calculates the median time from emergency department arrival to time of transfer to another facility for acute coronary intervention.

This measure evaluates the percentage of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine studies for low back pain performed in the outpatient setting where conservative therapy was not attempted prior to the MRI. Antecedent conservative therapy may include claim(s) for physical therapy in the 60 days preceding the lumbar spine MRI, claim(s) for chiropractic evaluation and manipulative treatment in the 60 days preceding the lumbar spine MRI, or claim(s) for evaluation and management at least 28 days but no later than 60 days preceding the lumbar spine MRI.

Percentage of children/adolescents age =5 to =19 years-old seen in the emergency department with psychotic symptoms who are screened for alcohol or drugs of abuse

The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is a brief parent-report questionnaire that is used to assess overall psychosocial functioning in children from 3 to 18 years of age. Originally developed to be a screen that would allow pediatricians and other health professionals to identify children with poor overall functioning who were in need of further evaluation or referral, the PSC has seen such wide use in large systems that it has increasingly been used as a quality indicator and as an outcome measure to assess changes in functioning over time.

This measure reports the percentage of a provider’s patients who were Medicaid beneficiaries ages 18 to 64 with an OUD diagnosis who filled a prescription for, or were administered or ordered, a FDA-approved medication to treat OUD within 30 days of the first attributable OUD treatment encounter with that provider.

Total Cost of Care reflects a mix of complicated factors such as patient illness burden, service utilization and negotiated prices. Total Cost Index (TCI) is a measure of a primary care provider’s risk adjusted cost effectiveness at managing the population they care for. TCI includes all costs associated with treating members including professional, facility inpatient and outpatient, pharmacy, lab, radiology, ancillary and behavioral health services.