Methodist Hospital Nationally Recognized for Electronic Clinical Quality Measure Contributions by The Joint Commission

Methodist Hospital, Methodist Women’s Hospital and Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital today announced it is one of only 39 hospitals to receive national recognition from The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States, for its contributions to electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) adoption.

The recognition appears in The Joint Commission’s Annual Report, “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” as part of its Pioneers in Quality™ program to acknowledge hospitals at the forefront of a new era in health care quality reporting.

Historically, hospitals collected measure information by manually abstracting data from patient records. Today, through eCQMs, a clinical quality measure that uses structured, encoded data present in the electronic health record, hospitals can electronically collect and transmit data on the quality of care that patients receive—data that can be analyzed to measure and improve care processes, performance and outcomes.

“We commend Methodist Hospital for achieving this special recognition. Out of 3,300 hospitals, Methodist is among 39 Pioneers in Quality hospitals at the forefront of embracing new technology to submit data about the care it is providing to patients and is voluntarily sharing its experiences to help other hospitals,” said David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, executive vice president, Division of Health Care Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission.

Methodist Hospital is being recognized as Pioneers in Quality Expert Contributor and Data Contributor award winners.

To be recognized as a 2016 Pioneers in Quality hospital, criteria must have been met in at least one of three categories of participation with The Joint Commission:   

• Expert Contributor: Hospitals that have advanced the evolution and utilization of eCQMs through such contributions as presenting at a Pioneers in Quality webinar or participating in eCQM development during 2016.

• Solution Contributor: Hospitals that submitted an eCQM solution or implementation experience during 2016 for the Core Measure Solution Exchange®, a quality improvement tool that promotes the sharing of performance measurement successes among accredited hospitals.

• Data Contributor: Hospitals that voluntarily transmitted 2015 eCQM data during 2016.

Methodist was one of the first organizations in the United States to electronically submit clinical quality measure data to the Joint Commission via our electronic medical record vendor, Cerner. Specifically, in 2016, we submitted at least two quality measures of 2015 Emergency Room data.  

Additionally, Methodist willingly shared their eCQM expertise with approximately 900 members of the Joint Commission community via a Joint Commission Pioneers in Quality webinar in June 2016.

“We are honored to be recognized by The Joint Commission,” said Steve Goeser, president and chief executive officer of Methodist Hospital. “It reflects on our staff’s commitment to continuous quality improvement, especially as it relates to the adoption of eCQMs—the evolution of data reporting. Like The Joint Commission, we believe gathering and analyzing performance data are crucial to continuously improving quality of care and outcomes for all patients.”

The Joint Commission developed the Pioneers in Quality program to assist health care organizations in their transition to electronic reporting. It includes educational webinars for continuing education units, a comprehensive eCQM resource portal, a Pioneers in Quality Technical Advisory Panel and outreach from The Joint Commission’s Speaker’s Bureau. For more information on the Pioneers in Quality program, please visit https://www.jointcommission.org/topics/pioneers_in_quality.aspx.