WASHINGTON – The Measures Application Partnership (MAP) has submitted its recommendations on the improvement and coordination of care by post-acute care and long-term care providers to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
MAP, a public-private, multi-stakeholder healthcare leaders group assembled by the National Quality Forum (NQF) in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, recommends that HHS
• define core measure concepts for post-acute care (PAC) and long-term care (LTC) performance measurement to align measurement and promote common goals across providers;
• highlight the need for and use of uniform data sources and health IT so that data can be collected once, easily and for multiple purposes; and
• determine a process for improving measure applications by filling priority measure gaps, developing standardized care planning tools and monitoring for unintended consequences.
“Achieving alignment of performance measurement across PAC/LTC settings will require effort from federal and state governments, as well as the private sector,” concluded MAP’s report. “The guidance MAP offers through this report serves as a starting point for moving toward harmonized measures and data collection methods.”
MAP’s report is one of four the group is submitting to HHS. Each report offers more coordinated approaches to making healthcare safer and enhancing facility and clinician measurement and performance, explained a press release from NQF. MAP’s post-acute and long-term care report makes recommendations for home healthcare providers, short- and long-term stay nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals. A subsequent report will focus on hospice care.
The report also offers areas of leverage on which post-acute and long-term care providers can build measurement priorities. The six areas identified include:
• routine measurement of the functional, cognitive and mental health status of patients;
• experience of care;
• the number of falls, pressure ulcers and adverse drug events they experience;
• infection rates;
• avoidable readmissions; and
• the existence of care transition plans for every patient.
“Achieving the alignment of performance measurement holds promise for facilitating coordinated care and reducing data collection burden across PAC and LTC settings, but will require earnest effort from the public and private sectors,” said Carol Raphael, chair of the MAP post-acute/long-term care work group in a press release about MAP’s recommendations. “We hope this report will spark a move toward greater harmonization of measures and uniform data sources.”
Follow HFN associate editor Stephanie Bouchard on Twitter @SBouchardHFN.
