Median Admit Decision Time to ED Departure Time for Admitted Patients

This measure specification delineates how to calculate the duration from the Decision to Admit to the departure from an Emergency Department (ED) visit.

Decision to Admit: Documentation of the decision to admit the patient from the ED that is closest to the inpatient admission and since admission processes vary at different hospitals this can use either of the following:

1. An Order- A) admission order (this may be an operational order rather than the hospital admission to inpatient status order), B) disposition order (must explicitly state to admit), C) documented bed request, or D) documented acceptance from admitting physician. This is not the "bed assignment time" or "report called time". Or

2. An Assessment- an ED evaluation that results in a decision to "Admit Inpatient"

The decision to admit inpatient must be performed during the ED visit that is within one hour of the inpatient admission and prior to the patient departing the ED.

The specification provides elements from the clinical electronic record required to calculate the median time, i.e., the duration from the decision to admit to the time the patient physically departed the ED.

Patients with behavioral health emergencies are stratified because often these situations are confounded by policies and practices in the community that are beyond the control of any individual hospital and present the hospital with quality and safety circumstances different from those of the acute medical patients (Joint Commission, 2012). Recent peer-reviewed studies also demonstrate the need for dedicated emergency mental health services, supplying evidence that the clinical needs for these patients substantively differ from the non-psychiatric population (American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), 2017; Lester, 2018).

The measure population includes patients with inpatient hospitalizations and patients from Acute Hospital Care at Home programs, who are treated and billed as inpatients but receive care in their home.

This eCQM is an episode-based measure. An episode is defined as each inpatient hospitalization or encounter that ends during the measurement period.

This version of the eCQM uses QDM version 5.6. Please refer to the QDM page for more information on the QDM.