Dear Colleagues,
The Flex Monitoring Team is pleased to announce the release of a new Policy Brief on rural relevant quality measures for Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). The purpose of this study is to provide rural health care providers and policymakers with an up-to-date set of relevant quality measures for CAHs.
Relevant Quality Measures for Critical Access Hospitals
Key Findings:
A comprehensive set of quality measures are relevant for Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), including measures addressing appropriate care for inpatients with specific medical conditions, global measures addressing appropriate care across multiple medical conditions, and Emergency Department measures.
Although CAHs have low volumes of patients for some measures, the measures are relevant because they address serious conditions, are based on strong evidence, and reflect the standard of care that all hospitals should aim to provide for every patient.
Many relevant quality measures are now ready for reporting. Other measures need specifications to be finalized and/or a data reporting mechanism to be established; these could be reported starting in January 2013.
It would significantly reduce the reporting burden for CAHs if all entities involved in regulation, accreditation, and payment would agree to accept a single set of quality measures with common specifications. Implementation of a common set of CAH quality measures and a unified data reporting structure will require coordinated actions by multiple organizations.
To motivate improvement in the quality of careand help patients make informed decisions in selecting health care providers, all CAHs should publicly report on relevant quality measures.
For more information, contact Michelle Casey, mcasey@umn.edu
