Each electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) is composed of data elements in the EHR or health IT system that are evaluated according to the measure specifications.
It is important to identify what data elements need to be transitioned to any new EHR for clinical quality measure continuity and accuracy. This resource identifies clinical data elements in eCQMs that should be considered when transitioning EHRs. These data elements are used in reporting or calculating eCQMs, so their availability or lack thereof in any new EHR system will impact reporting accuracy.

The Performance Measure Data Definition Worksheet can be used during the Quality Improvement (QI) process to assess the alignment of your health center’s workflows and documentation and your EHR vendor’s reporting logic processes.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) EHR Certification criteria requires EHR vendors to use eCQM (electronic Clinical Quality Measure) specifications to define measures. Therefore, reported data for a measure should be consistent regardless of EHR vendor. In practice, however, it is important to confirm that your EHR vendor’s reporting logic is consistent with your health center’s definition and workflows, and vice versa, as outlined in this worksheet.

HITEQ's AirTable interactive PCMH Support Tool is intended to help health centers gauge track and support their transformation process for achieving PCMH recognition.

This compendium of references and tools is intended to support Quality Improvement efforts and to build skills across health center staff, particular those who may be tasked with leading data literacy and data governance activities or are new to the health center world. 

The third of a three-part EHR Optimization series focused on establishing goals and expectations for optimizing EHR utilization and sharing proven strategy/tools for optimizing EHR utilization, including slides and related tools. 

The second of a three-part EHR Optimization series focused on establishing goals and expectations for optimizing EHR utilization and sharing proven strategy/tools for optimizing EHR utilization, including slides and related tools.

The first of a three-part EHR Optimization series focused on establishing goals and expectations for optimizing EHR utilization and sharing proven strategy/tools for optimizing EHR utilization, including slides and related tools. 

The redesigned PCMH 2017 requirements focus on assessing a practice’s transformation into a medical home and specify goals for improvement. There is a new recognition requirement structure: concepts, competencies, and criteria.

Empanelment is the basis for population health management and the key to continuity of care. Accepting responsibility for a finite number of patients, instead of the universe of patients seeking care in the practice, allows the provider and care team to focus more directly on the needs of each patient. Inside, find guidance for establishing and maintaining patient panels.

The Center for Care Innovations (CCI) developed this tool to address a potential gap around defining and assessing analytics capability in health centers, as well as to provide education on some of the complexity and nuance of working with data and building a data-driven culture.

Healthcare organizations are flooding with data. Health centers have a wealth of data about their patients and their community. It is essential that these organizations  build a strong foundation of people, processes and technology to leverage that data to improve care and better serve the underserved.

This brief discusses the importance of including frontline staff such as front desk, intake staff, and medical assistants in Health IT Enabled QI process, as they are often the ‘data creators’ or the ones entering the information into the system. Real world examples as well as suggested approaches and further resources are included.

Intended to assist in ensuring full use and understanding of capabilities of current system and assessing the need for additional population health management or data integration tools, this checklist describes the steps health center quality improvement and IT staff can take to ensure they are maximizing the population health management and other capacity of current systems. It Included are questions around the system itself, report generation, training, and resulting data, as well as considerations before and after you contact your vendor.

This white paper explores what is bringing a health center to the world of Health IT Enabled QI and lays out some motivating factors and barriers as well as what skill areas may need further consideration in planning next steps.

Recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policy is bringing patients unprecedented access to their health information. Join the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in September for an event focused on patient access to health data. The day will bring together patients, providers, payers, and health IT developers to discuss how HHS policies are working in practice and how to maximize the impact of these policies. The event will also highlight educational tools and resources, such as patient-facing apps that enable the availability of patient information and make that health information easier to understand.

Come to the ONC and CMS patient access event to hear more about…

Patients’ experiences accessing their data, including the benefits and challenges they faced along this journey. How the next generation of apps are connecting across new health information sources to bring together patients’ data and preferred tools to act on that data. Clinicians who are at the forefront of helping patients access and understand their data, recognizing patient preferences and privacy concerns. Innovative developers demonstrating how they are making patients’ data actionable, and the implementation challenges they face as they connect sources across the care continuum Health care payers’ their successes and challenges with making data available to patients. Don't miss this opportunity to learn about the latest developments in patient data access and how you can be a part of the path forward.

Registration details to follow soon! Until then, you can find valuable information and resources about the patient’s right to their data on our website. If you would be interested in sharing a patient experience with accessing and using patient data, please share with us at https://www.healthit.gov/feedback.
 

Drawing on recently published research from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s EvidenceNOW initiative, Dr. Samuel Edwards shared insights for primary care practices seeking to assess and address provider burnout. Dr. Edwards highlighted associations between the use of quality improvement strategies, EHR capabilities, and satisfaction among practices with zero-burnout versus high-burnout. Key, and sometimes surprising, takeaways regarding leadership, workplace environment and culture, EHR use, and more from this research were discussed.

This tool is for use by health centers interested in assessing their readiness for Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) under the 2014 Standards. It can be used by first time users as well as those seeking a renewal. The tool walks organizations through the requirements for each of the standards, elements, and factors for NCQA PCMH recognition by providing a way of tracking what they currently have in place and what they are missing, a list of supporting materials to submit to NCQA, as well as Health IT tools that can support both the implementation of the required factors as well as the generation of the documents/reports needed for submission.

It is sometimes difficult to know what target metric to focus on when beginning a quality improvement project. A prioritization matrix is a management tool that uses a simple framework to compare multiple options side-by-side using standard criteria. This version includes four criteria and can be adapted for your purposes.

 A Project Charter serves as a reference of authority for the future of the project. Creating a Project Charter and getting sign off from all participants gives all involved the authority to begin the work outlined therein. The task of developing the Project Charter builds understanding, consensus, and clarity about purpose, expectations, roles and responsibilities, and communications.