NQF publishes EMR quality reporting standards

In preparation for the clinical reporting and quality measurement that the federal EMR subsidy program will require, the National Quality Forum has published a set of standard clinical elements that EMRs should be able to capture across all care settings. Called the Quality Data Set, the standards should enable quality measurement from numerous sources, including EMRs, PHRs, health information exchanges and patient registries, Government Health IT reports.

"Providing a common data resource for all stakeholders in the quality-measures supply chain will allow us to align our efforts and improve the comparability of quality reports while dramatically reducing the burden of quality measurement," says Dr. Paul Tang, chairman of the NQF committee that developed the standards and CMIO at Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Northern California. Tang, who also is vice-chairman of the federal Health IT Policy Committee, says that the HHS panel may consider the Quality Data Set for future standards for "meaningful use" of health IT.

To learn more:
- read this Government Health IT story
- see this NQF press release

Related Articles:
HL7 vote seeks to standardize EHR quality reporting
Healthcare execs see EMR data as their most valuable asset