eCQM Spring Cleaning To-Do List

eCQM monitoring and improvement requires dedication and lots of advanced planning. You should do a full review of the annual eCQM updates each year. To help you with this task, we’ve put together a spring cleaning checklist which will get you ready and organized.

It’s unofficially spring in Maryland. I know it’s early March, and that there’s still the possibility of a late snow but tell that to my tulips peeking up through the half-frozen dirt in the flower bed.

As soon as I noticed those tulips coming up, I began noting everything else in my yard; the branches that need to be picked up, the vegetable garden that needs to be prepped and the chicken coop. My poor chicken coop. I haven’t had chickens for two years and there it sits, overgrown with dead weeds, and in need of a good power wash. I’m sure my back yard is an eyesore for my neighbors. *Sigh* I guess it’s time for spring cleaning, just a bit earlier than I expected.

The good news is that I’m used to spring cleaning well in advance of the season. In the world of Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs), we start spring cleaning in the fall, some five months ahead of schedule. Why?

At Medisolv, we have an obligation to get an early start so that our clients can be ready for the next reporting year beginning in January. If you’ve participated in any of our eCQM webinars, you’ve probably heard us talk about the “annual cycle” of electronic measures.

Also see: Questions to ask your vendor about CQL

The cycle starts for us in the fall, with a full review of upcoming regulatory requirements, new eCQMs, measure specification changes, value set changes, code changes … the list goes on and on. This first review is our big spring-cleaning event. Out with the old, in with the new.

So where are you with your eCQM spring cleaning? Maybe you haven’t started, or maybe you’re still trying to complete your 2019 submissions and haven’t had time to think about 2020. Well don’t worry, you have time to catch up, but if you want to ensure complete and accurate results (and maybe even get your submissions done earlier next year!) I’d suggest you review our (super-secret) eCQM spring cleaning to-do list:

Hopefully this list sheds some light on the reasons you should get started early! If you’ve been involved with improving your eCQM performance at your hospital, these items won’t surprise you. If this list makes you sweat a bit, don’t panic. There’s plenty of time, but I do suggest you get started now. An earlier start will give you time to implement, validate and maintain your measures in advance of the end of the submission window, and along the way, you’ll be able to improve your results as well.

I have to clean out that vegetable garden if I want to have a good crop of summer squash, I need to mulch the flower beds if I want to keep the weeds down and moisture in, and that stinking coop needs to be washed out if I’m ever going to have chickens again. Same with eCQMs. If you want to have good results that accurately reflect the care you’re providing at your facility, if you want to have a successful submission, if you want to use your results to positively impact patient care, you’re going to need to make sure you have the processes in place to carry-out and complete an annual eCQM cycle.

Download and print our eCQM Spring Cleaning To-Do List.