Developing Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) to Track Quality of Health Care

Measurement and reporting of health care quality at the provider level are essential tools to improve the quality of the U.S. health care system. The growing use of electronic health records (EHRs) creates an infrastructure that facilitates workflows to record and extract both patient- and provider-entered data. These advances establish a sound foundation to exploit the power of EHRs for outcomes-based quality measurement and improvement.

Mathematica developed and testing electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) for use in certified EHRs for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quality reporting programs. We led the development of more than two dozen new eCQMs spanning multiple domains—including patient safety, care coordination, overuse, and patient and family engagement. Our new measure development work is driven by environmental scans and gap analyses to identify potential new measures, concepts and gap areas. In addition, the team supports education and outreach activities related to the dissemination and use of eCQMs.

Subcontractors included the American Medical Association-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, the American Nurses Association, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lantana Consulting Group, the Lewin Group, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, Telligen, and the Joint Commission.