Populations at Risk

The percentage of patients 18 years of age and older who were discharged from an inpatient setting with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI), coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) during the 12 months prior to the measurement year, or who had a diagnosis of ischemic vascular disease (IVD) during the measurement year and the year prior to the measurement year and who had documentation of routine use of aspirin or another antiplatelet during the measurement year.

Percentage of patients age 50 and over with fragility fracture who have had appropriate laboratory investigation for secondary causes of fracture ordered or performed prior to discharge from inpatient status.

Admissions for any-listed diagnosis of diabetes and any-listed procedure of lower-extremity amputation (except toe amputations) per 100,000 population, ages 18 years and older. Excludes any-listed diagnosis of traumatic lower-extremity amputation admissions, obstetric admissions, and transfers from other institutions.

[NOTE: The software provides the rate per population. However, common practice reports the measure as per 100,000 population. The user must multiply the rate obtained from the software by 100,000 to report admissions per 100,000 population.]

Percentage of patient months for patients on maintenance hemodialysis during the last HD treatment of month using an autogenous AV fistula.

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.

The three components of this measure assess different facets of providing medical assistance with smoking and tobacco use cessation:

Advising Smokers and Tobacco Users to Quit: A rolling average represents the percentage of patients 18 years of age and older who were current smokers or tobacco users and who received advice to quit during the measurement year.

Percentage of patient-months for which medication reconciliation* was performed and documented by an eligible professional.**

The percentage of children and adolescents 1-17 years of age who had two or more antipsychotic prescriptions and had metabolic testing.

Percentage of patient months on maintenance hemodialysis during the last HD treatment of month with a chronic catheter continuously for 90 days or longer prior to the last hemodialysis session.