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Hospital Harm - Postoperative Respiratory Failure

Measure Information 2026 Reporting Period
Title Hospital Harm - Postoperative Respiratory Failure
CMS eCQM ID CMS1218v1
Short Name

HH-RF

CBE ID* 4130e
Measure Steward Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Description

This measure assesses the number of elective inpatient hospitalizations for patients aged 18 years and older without an obstetrical condition who have a procedure resulting in postoperative respiratory failure (PRF)

Measure Scoring Proportion measure
Measure Type Outcome
Stratification

None

Risk Adjustment

Variables are collected for the development of baseline risk adjustment model

Report the first resulted vital sign values during the encounter in the Unified Code for Units of Measure

(UCUM) units specified:

- Body temperature: Cel, [degF]

- Heart rate: {Beats}/min

- Respiratory rate:...

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Rationale

Postoperative respiratory failure (PRF), defined as unplanned endotracheal reintubation, prolonged inability to wean from mechanical ventilation, or inadequate oxygenation and/or ventilation, is the most common serious postoperative pulmonary complication, with an incidence of up to 7.5%...

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Clinical Recommendation Statement

Recent studies and current clinical practice guidelines for PRF have identified enhanced recovery pathways, prophylactic mucolytics, postoperative continuous positive airway pressure ventilation, lung protective intraoperative ventilation, prophylactic respiratory physiotherapy, epidural...

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Improvement Notation

A lower measure score indicates higher quality

Definition

Inpatient hospitalizations: Includes time in outpatient surgery service or observation when the transition between these encounters (if they exist) and the inpatient encounter are within an hour or less of each other.

"Elective Inpatient Encounter" value set intends to capture all...

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Guidance

PRF is evaluated using mechanical ventilation (MV) documentation or intubation and extubation documentation to allow for hospital documentation variances. Therefore, if MV documentation is not available, intubation and extubation can serve as a proxy for determining if MV occurred and...

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Initial Population

Elective inpatient hospitalizations with no preceding emergency department visit that end during the measurement period for patients aged 18 and older without an obstetrical condition and at least one surgical procedure was performed within the first 3 days of the encounter

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Denominator

Equals Initial Population

Denominator Exclusions

Inpatient hospitalizations for patients:

With a diagnosis for a degenerative neurological disorder

With any selected head, neck, and thoracic surgery involving significant risk of airway compromise or requiring airway protection

Who have mechanical ventilation that starts more than one hour...

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Numerator

Elective inpatient hospitalizations for patients with postoperative respiratory failure as evidenced by any of the following:

Criterion A: Mechanical ventilation (MV) initiated within 30 days after first OR procedure, as evidenced by:

A.1. Intubation that occurs outside of a procedural...

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Numerator Exclusions

Not Applicable

Denominator Exceptions

None

Next Version No Version Available
Previous Version No Version Available
  1. This is a risk adjusted measure. Risk Adjustment Summary Report: Hospital Harm – Postoperative Respiratory Failure
  2. There is a known issue on CMS1218v1. See issue EKI-29 on the ONC eCQM Known Issues Dashboard for details.

Additional Resources for CMS1218v1

Last Updated: Feb 04, 2025