NQF Endorses Prevention Care and Screening Measures 

Washington, DC – the National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors has endorsed 19 quality measures related to preventive care. The measures – part of NQF’s Population Health: Prevention Endorsement Maintenance project – address a range of clinical preventive care concerns, including influenza and pneumococcal immunizations across a range of healthcare settings, and screenings for specific cancers, sexually transmitted infections, and osteoporosis.

“Improving population health is a significant priority of the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Quality Strategy,” said Janet Corrigan, PhD, MBA, president and CEO of NQF. “This initial set of measures will help achieve this goal, as they address clinical preventive services and public health concerns that are at the heart of population health improvement efforts.”

The endorsed measures include those that have undergone NQF maintenance as well as newly submitted measures for initial endorsement. The ongoing evaluation and updating of endorsed measures ensures the currency and relevance of NQF’s preventive care portfolio.

“The public health and healthcare community have made population health – including clinical preventive services, healthy lifestyle behaviors, and improvement in social, environmental, and economic determinants of health – a national priority,” said Paul Jarris, MD, MBA, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and co-chair of the Population Health Endorsement Maintenance Steering Committee. “By endorsing a suite of measures that focus on clinical and community prevention, NQF will help public health and health care providers throughout the country more effectively evaluate and ultimately improve health at the population level.”

For this initial phase of the project, NQF sought measures that specifically addressed clinical preventive services and influenza and pneumococcal immunizations. In all, 20 measures were evaluated against NQF’s endorsement criteria, with 19 receiving endorsement status.

NQF is a voluntary consensus standards-setting organization. Any party may request reconsideration of any of the 19 endorsed quality measures listed below by submitting an appeal no later than June 1  (to submit an appeal, go to the NQF Measure Database). For an appeal to be considered, the notification must include information clearly demonstrating that the appellant has interests directly and materially affected by the NQF-endorsed recommendations and that the NQF decision has had (or will have) an adverse effect on those interests.

Endorsed Measures 

• 0431 Influenza vaccination among healthcare personnel (CDC)
• 0522 Influenza immunization- home health (CMS)
• 0226 Influenza immunization in the ESRD population (Kidney Care Quality Alliance)
• 0039 Flu shots for ages 50 and over (NCQA)
• 0041 Influenza immunization (AMA-PCPI)
• 1659 Influenza immunization (hospital) (CMS)
• 0043 Pneumonia vaccination for older adults (NCQA)
• 0617 Pneumococcal vaccination (Active Health Management)
• 1653 Pneumococcal immunization (hospital) (CMS)
• 0525 Pneumococcal vaccine ever received (home health) (CMS)
• 0038 Childhood immunizations (NCQA)

Screening 

• 0034 Colorectal cancer screening (NCQA)
• 0033 Chlamydia screening (NCQA)
• 0032 Cervical cancer screening (0032)
• 0579 Annual cervical cancer screening for high-risk patients (Resolution Health, Inc.)
• 0037 Osteoporosis testing in older women (NCQA)
• 0046 Osteoporosis screening or therapy for women aged 65 years and older (NCQA)
• 0614 Steroid use- osteoporosis screening (Active Health Management)
• 0629 Male smokers or family history of AAA – screening for AAA (Active Health Management)

NQF operates under a three-part mission to improve the quality of American healthcare by:  

• building consensus on national priorities and goals for performance improvement and working in partnership to achieve them;  
• endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance; and  
• promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.