Eli's Hospice Insider

Quality:

You May Report These Quality Measures Sooner Than You Think

Pain, dyspnea, and patient preferences figure in possible future quality measures.

Want an idea of what hospice quality measures you'll be reporting down the road? Just check out the National Quality Forum's recently endorsed list of palliative and end-of-life care measures.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is considering the NQF-endorsed list for possible inclusion in its quality reporting system, CMS's Mary Pratt said at a recent industry conference (see related story, this page). The NQF list includes one measure CMS has already decided to collect -- 0209: Comfortable dying (maintenance). The other endorsed measures include:

  • 1634: Hospice and Palliative Care -- Pain Screening (paired with measure 1637)
  • 1637: Hospice and Palliative Care -- Pain Assessment (paired with measure 1634)
  • 1617: Patients treated with an Opioid who are given a bowel regimen
  • 1628: Patients with advanced cancer assessed for pain at outpatient visits
  • 1638: Hospice and Palliative Care -- Dyspnea Treatment (paired with measure 1639)
  • 1639: Hospice and Palliative Care -- Dyspnea Screening (paired with measure 1638)
  • 1626: Patients admitted to the ICU who have care preferences documented
  • 1641: Hospice and Palliative Care -- Treatment Preferences
  • 1647: Percentage of hospice patients with documentation in the clinical record of a discussion of spiritual/religious concerns or documentation that the patient/caregiver did not want to discuss
  • 1625: Hospitalized patients who die an expected death with an ICD that has been deactivated
  • 0208: Family Evaluation of Hospice Care (maintenance)
  • 1632: CARE -- Consumer Assessments and Reports of End of Life
  • 1623: Bereaved Family Survey

More information on the measures is on the NQF website at www.qualityforum.org/Measures_List.aspx. To search for a measure, put its number in the search box in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

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