Child Health Quality Measures 2010 


Project Status: Completed

National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Child Health Quality Measures 2010

Access the Final Report: Child Health Quality Measures 2010 Final Report 

The Opportunity

Child health quality is an important, underemphasized area of measure development and endorsement. To date, NQF has endorsed more than 70 pediatric and perinatal measures. The set of NQF endorsed measures has steadily risen over the last several years, with emphasis in the areas of perinatal and neonatal care, chronic illness care, and care for hospitalized children.

In November 2009, NQF convened a Child Health Outcomes Steering Committee to identify, evaluate, and endorse additional measures suitable for public reporting and quality improvement that specifically address outcomes of child health. This project included both cross-cutting and condition-specific outcome measures. The Child Health Outcomes Project also identified gaps in existing outcome measures.

The recent release of an initial core set of measures for Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) voluntary use provides an important step in assessing child health quality by state programs. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality National Advisory Council Subcommittee on Children’s Healthcare Quality Measures for Medicaid and CHIP Programs (ARHQ SNAC) recently identified a number of priority areas for children without adequate measures, including mental health and substance abuse services, other specialty services, and inpatient care. Measures in key gap areas such as quality of well child care, dental care, and acute care for children, were highlighted. This consensus project will complement the AHRQ SNAC collaboration with the Center for Medicaid, CHIP, and Survey and Certification. While the initial core set of CHIPRA (Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act) measures will be prescribed (or specified) by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, there may be other appropriate measures that may enhance the portfolio of child health quality measures and could be used in the future for the pediatric quality measurement program as required by CHIPRA.

In this call, NQF would like to target measures that could be used in public reporting at the population level (e.g., state) and for the following conditions or cross-cutting areas applicable to the Medicaid population.

  • respiratory issues such as asthma;
  • overweight/obese;
  • well child care;
  • prevention and screening (e.g., immunizations, developmental delay);
  • diabetes;
  • prenatal/perinatal care;
  • access to care (e.g., well-child care visits, access to primary care practitioners, emergency room utilization);
  • oral health (e.g., access to services, dental caries);
  • inpatient safety (e.g., pediatric catheter associated blood stream infection rates);
  • mental health (e.g. depression, behavior problems, anxiety, ADHD); and
  • patient experience with care.

About the Project

This project began in July 2010. 

Process 

The candidate measures will be considered for NQF endorsement as national voluntary consensus standards. Agreement will be developed through NQF’s Consensus Development Process (CDP, Version 1.8). This project involves the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders.

Project Funding 

This project is funded under NQF's Department of Health and Human Services contract, Consensus-based Entities Regarding Healthcare Performance Measurement.

Related NQF Projects 

Contact Information 

For more information, contact Suzanne Theberge, MPH at 202-783-1300 or via e-mail at childhealth@qualityforum.org.

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