Glossary

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan, membership-based organization that works to catalyze improvements in healthcare.

The null performance rate is when all of the denominator eligible instances are attributed to all denominator exceptions. Therefore, the performance rate for satisfactory reporting would be 0/0 (null).

The numerator is the upper portion of a fraction used to calculate a rate, proportion, or ratio. Also called the measure focus, it is the target process, condition, event, or outcome. Numerator criteria are the processes or outcomes expected for each patient, procedure, or other unit of measurement defined in the denominator. A numerator statement describes the clinical action that satisfies the conditions of the performance measure.

The numerator exclusion defines the instances that should not be included in the numerator data. Use numerator exclusions only in ratio and proportion measures.