The Opportunity
A healthy childhood sets the stage for improved health and quality of life in adulthood. For the first time in several years, NQF will take a concerted look at child health measures. Many of these measures are the result of years of work by the Centers of Excellence in Pediatric Quality Measurement (COEs), which aimed both to develop new measures and refine current ones in high-priority areas of child health.
The Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) accelerated interest in pediatric quality measurement and presented an unprecedented opportunity to improve the health care quality and outcomes of the nation’s children, including the almost 40 million children enrolled in Medicaid and/or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIPRA also established the Pediatric Quality Measures Program. The program, with support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), funded seven Centers of Excellence to develop and refine child health measures in high-priority areas. After years of concerted effort, a cohort of these measures is now ready for NQF to review and endorsement consideration. This work adds to the NQF pediatric measure work through the Measure Applications Partnership, which continues its work to improve the Child Core Set of measures used by Medicaid and CHIP.
About the Project
The Pediatric Measures project launched in July 2015. This project will evaluate measures related to child health that can be used for accountability and public reporting for all pediatric populations and in all settings of care. This project will address topic areas including but not limited to:
- Child- and adolescent-focused clinical preventive services and follow-up to preventive services
- Child- and adolescent-focused services for management of acute conditions
- Child- and adolescent-focused services for management of chronic conditions
- Cross-cutting topics
Objectives
A multi-stakeholder Steering Committee will be established to evaluate newly submitted measures and make recommendations for which measures should be endorsed as national consensus standards. This Committee will work to identify and endorse new performance measures for accountability and quality improvement that specifically address the area of pediatric care.
NQF Process
Candidate consensus standards will be considered for NQF endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards. Consensus on the recommendations will be developed through NQF’s formal Consensus Development Process (CDP, Version 1.8). This project involves the
active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare
stakeholders and will be guided by a Standing Committee.
Funding
This project is funded under NQF’s contract with the Department
of Health and Human Services.
Related NQF Work
Contact Information
For further information, contact Suzanne Theberge, MPH, Senior Project Manager, or Nadine Allen, MEd, Project Manager, via email at PediatricPerformanceMeasures@qualityforum.org.