[TAO] NQF Reports - Important reading for those involved in telehealth

[Catherine Britain]

I believe this is a *must-read* for all telehealth providers and those
wanting to provide healthcare services via telehealth.  The NQF press
release is below and I have included a link to the reports at the bottom of
the page.

NQF Proposes Approaches to Assess, Improve Telehealth Quality and
Interoperability


*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
SEP 05, 2017

*CONTACT: **Sofia Kosmetatos*
202-478-9326
press at qualityforum.org

NQF Proposes Approaches to Assess, Improve Telehealth Quality and
Interoperability


*Washington, DC*—The National Quality Forum (NQF) has issued two new
reports that provide national guidance to advance health information
technology to make healthcare more effective and safer for all Americans.
In one report
<http://www.qualityforum.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=85836>,
NQF identifies critical areas where measurement can effectively assess the
quality and impact of telehealth services. In another report
<http://www.qualityforum.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=85828>,
NQF assesses the current state of interoperability and its impact on
quality processes and outcomes.

“Telehealth is a vital resource, especially for people in rural areas
seeking help from specialists, such as mental health providers,” said
Marcia Ward, PhD, director of the Rural Telehealth Research Center at the
University of Iowa, and co-chair of NQF’s Telehealth Committee. “Telehealth
is healthcare. It is critically important that we measure the quality of
telehealth and identify areas for improvement just as we do for in-person
care.”

Telehealth services, which unite technology with healthcare, health
information, and health education, have grown substantially over the past
15 years and are expected to increase due to new reimbursement strategies
for Medicare providers who offer telehealth services as part of the
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).

NQF recommends measuring the quality of telehealth in four broad
categories: patients’ access to care, financial impact to patients and
their care team, patient and clinician experience, and effectiveness of
clinical and operational systems. Within these categories, NQF identified
six key areas as having the highest priority for measurement in telehealth,
including: travel, timeliness of care, actionable information, added value
of telehealth to provide evidence-based practices, patient empowerment, and
care coordination.

NQF’s Telehealth Committee identified 16 NQF-endorsed measures that can be
used initially to measure telehealth quality in the structure outlined
above. These measures span a variety of conditions, ranging from mental and
behavioral health to care coordination.

“For many patients, telehealth can mean the difference between seeing their
doctor or receiving no care at all,” said Judd Hollander, MD, associate
dean for strategic health initiatives at Thomas Jefferson University, and
co-chair of NQF’s Telehealth Committee. “NQF’s framework for measuring
telehealth quality will be key to helping ensure quality care, no matter
where people access it.”

In a separate report, NQF proposes measuring interoperability—the
electronic sharing of health information and how that information is being
used—in four broad categories: the exchange of electronic health
information, its usability, its application, and its impact—on patient
safety, costs, productivity, care coordination, processes and outcomes, and
patients’ and caregivers’ experience and engagement.

NQF’s Interoperability Committee identified 53 ideas for measures that
would be useful in the short term (0-3 years), in the mid-term (3-5 years)
and in the long-term (5+ years). It also identified 36 existing measures
that serve as representative examples of these measure ideas and how they
could be affected by interoperability.

“NQF’s interoperability framework lays the groundwork to accomplish
national priorities for interoperability, access, and use of health data
outlined in the 21st Century Cures Act,” said Mark Savage, director, health
policy at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Digital
Health Innovation. “This framework gives important guidance on key concepts
where measures are needed to identify the extent or lack of
interoperability so that we can make it a reality across the continuum of
care. This guidance will help ensure that both providers and patients have
the data they need to assess the relative quality and value of care and
determine next steps.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded NQF’s projects to
improve telehealth quality, assess progress toward interoperability, and
assess the impact of interoperability on quality processes and outcomes.
NQF’s interoperability project serves as a foundation for addressing the
current gaps in the measurement of interoperability.

###

The National Quality Forum leads national collaboration to improve health
and healthcare quality through measurement. Learn more at
www.qualityforum.org.

*Links to the reports*

*Telehealth Framework to Support Measure Development 2016-17*

http://www.qualityforum.org/ProjectDescription.aspx?projectID=83231

*Interoperability 2016-2017*

http://www.qualityforum.org/Interoperability_2016-2017.aspx


Best,

Cathy
Catherine S. Britain, Executive Director
Telehealth Alliance of Oregon
csbritain at gmail.com
541-910-7366
www.ortelehealth.org
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