NQF Cardiac Surgery Committee Agrees
on Measure Set
June 25, 2004 - The steering committee for the National
Quality Forum's Cardiac Surgery Performance Measures project met
on June 2-3 to review a report from its technical advisory panel
and agree on a standardized set of existing quality measures for
cardiac surgery. The purpose of the project is to develop a standardized
set of existing measures to evaluate the quality of cardiac surgery.
At its first meeting, the steering committee referred several questions
to its technical advisory panel [see Washington
Highlights,
February 13]. One of the questions was whether appropriateness
measures (i.e., patients receiving the necessary cardiac care) were
within the scope of the project. The technical advisory panel agreed
that appropriateness measures were within the scope project but
did not find any for use at this time. They stated that appropriateness
measures should be a high priority for development and that the
measures should consider things from a patient's perspective in
the delivery of cardiovascular care.
Another issue referred to the technical advisory panel was whether
the level of analysis should be the individual surgeon or the hospital.
The technical advisory panel did not make a specific recommendation
on this issue, but rather discussed the issues around this topic
and agreed that further study in this area was needed sooner rather
than later to determine what information is available. Committee
members did not have a problem using hospital level data for the
measures that would be publicly reported.
The committee unanimously agreed that outcome measures related
to quality of life was an important issue and emphasized the need
for further development in this area.
After comparing the factors used in the coronary artery bypass
graph (CABG) mortality measure that was part of the Forum's Hospital
Measures project with a similar measure used in New York, the committee
chose to endorse the New York measure over the one previously endorsed
by the Forum. They also agreed not to endorse a length of stay measure
because they considered it a proxy for mortality.
This was steering committee's last public meeting; Forum staff
will develop a draft report for member comments and voting, with
the goal to have it ready for review by the Forum's Board of Directors
meeting in October.
Information:
Jeff Patyk, Staff Specialist
AAMC Health Care Affairs
jpatyk@aamc.org
(202) 828-0498
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