Glossary

The Electronic Clinical Quality Improvement (eCQI) Resource Center User Group is a volunteer forum for users of the eCQI Resource Center. Members use the site to access resources for the development, implementation, and reporting of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), as well as for education on key eCQI and eCQM concepts and standards. This Group meets quarterly on the third Tuesday of the month at 3:00 p.m. ET.

If you are interested in participating, download the meeting instances and request to be added to the User Group distribution list.

The electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) Annual Update Pre-publication Document outlines the versions of standards and code systems incorporated in the updated eCQMs for possible use in CMS programs during the reporting and performance period. This document helps health information technology (IT) and electronic health record (EHR) developers, eligible clinicians, and hospitals prepare for upcoming reporting year. It provides a transparent, pre-release view of the anticipated standards and code system versions.

The document is found at the bottom of eCQM Resources tab on each eCQM page:

• Eligible Clinician eCQMs - eCQM Resources
• Hospital - Inpatient eCQMs - eCQM Resources
• Hospital - Outpatient eCQMs - eCQM Resources 

The Measure Collaboration (MC) Workspace Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQM) Concepts Module gives users the ability to create new suggested eCQM concepts and comment on other's suggested eCQM concepts.

CMS encourages all stakeholders, including patients and point of care clinicians, to participate.

The eCQM Data Element Repository (DERep) provides clarification, definitions, and clinical context for the data elements associated with electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) used in CMS quality reporting and incentive programs. This resource is designed to help implementers accurately interpret and apply eCQM data requirements within health IT systems. Users can filter information by data element, eCQM, Quality Data Model (QDM) attribute, QDM category, QDM datatype, or QDM entities.

The electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) Flows are flowcharts designed to assist in the interpretation of the eCQM logic and provide the calculation methodology to determine measure scores. These flows provide an overview of each of the population criteria components and associated data elements that lead to the inclusion, exclusion, or exception into the eCQM’s denominator and numerator, if applicable.

The eCQM flows are available for eligible clinician eCQMs, hospital-inpatient eCQMs, and hospital-outpatient eCQMs.

The Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Implementation Checklist helps health IT developers, implementers, and health care organizations update their systems and workflows for the eCQM Annual Update. It assumes the organization has already determined the quality measures it will report. Organizations should apply the latest eCQM Annual Update to their electronic health record (EHR) systems for use in electronic quality reporting.

The Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Known Issues tracker provides implementation information for eCQMs with known technical issues for which a solution is under development but not yet available in a published eCQM specification. This includes discrepancies between eCQM narrative and logic, value sets, and/or technical, standard, or logic-related issues.

The Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Logic and Implementation Guidance document is a resource that includes details to assist implementers, including defining how specific logic and data elements should be conceptualized and addressed during eCQM implementation. It also provides information to interested parties on how to use the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Project Tracking System to provide feedback, track issues, and ask questions about measure intent, specifications, certification, standards, and issues uncovered during implementation associated with the eCQMs.

The Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Testing Opportunities Module enables eCQM developers to announce testing opportunities and for stakeholders to participate in eCQM testing. This module within the Measure Collaboration Workspace allows developers to evaluate various aspects of eCQMs, including feasibility, reliability, validity, and usability. Interested parties wanting to participate in testing eCQMs should contact the eCQM developer directly.

An efficiency measure assesses the cost of care and the resources used to achieve a specific level of health outcome.

Electronic case reporting automatically creates and sends reports about certain diseases and conditions from an electronic health record to public health agencies. Each state sets its own public health reporting requirements and relies on health care providers to report certain conditions.

Electronic clinical quality improvement (eCQI) uses health information technology, including the functions and data in electronic health records and other systems, along with clinical best practices to support and improve quality improvement efforts.

An electronic clinical quality improvement (eCQI) implementer helps prepare systems and workflows to use quality measures in health care. This work may include 

• adding measure data elements to systems and workflows
• using measures during care activities
• providing measure-based information to support quality improvement

Examples of eCQI implementers include health information technology implementers, quality analysts, and quality reporting validators.

An electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) is a measure written in a standard electronic format that uses data pulled from electronic health records (EHRs) and other health information technology (IT) systems to assess the quality of care provided.

An electronic health record (EHR) is also called an electronic patient record, electronic medical record, or computerized patient record. It is a digital record of a patient’s health information created over time from one or more visits and across care settings. An EHR can include demographic information, progress notes, health problems, medications, vital signs, medical history, immunizations, lab results, diagnoses, treatments, allergies, and radiology images. 

International Social Security Association. (n.d.). Information and communication technology- Guideline 91. Electronic health record system. Retrieved March 20, 2024, from https://ww1.issa.int/guidelines/ict/180156 

An eligible clinician (EC) is a clinician who can take part in the Quality Payment Program through the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). This term can also include participants in other CMS programs that use electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) for quality reporting, such as those in Alternative Payment Models (APMs).

An end user is a person who uses, or plans to use, a guideline, measure, or a product based on either one.

An environmental scan is a process for reviewing and interpreting data in a structured way to identify issues and opportunities that may affect current or future priorities.

The Environmental Scan Support Tool (ESST) is a tool within the CMS Measures Inventory Tool (CMIT) environment, intended to automate environmental scans required in the information gathering process to develop and maintain quality measures. The ESST uses an automated natural language processing approach that rapidly scans literature in PubMed, PubMed Central, and CINAHL to

• Identify relevant documents (abstracts and full-text articles)
• Identify and extract the specific knowledge within each relevant document that applies to the measure’s potential opportunity for improvement

The Expression Logical Model (ELM) is a machine-readable version of an electronic clinical quality measure’s logic. It includes the information needed to automatically retrieve data from an electronic health record. ELM files may use eXtensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

An extensional value set is a numbered list of specific concept codes and descriptions selected for a particular purpose.