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["Encounter, Performed": "Outpatient Consultation"]

Performance/Reporting Period
2021
Value Set Description from VSAC
Clinical Focus: This value set contains concepts that represent patients who have had an outpatient interaction at an office with a member of their medical care team.
Data Element Scope: This value set may use the Quality Data Model (QDM) datatype related to Encounter, Performed.
Inclusion Criteria: Includes only relevant concepts associated with comprehensive history, evaluation, and management of a patient in an office or outpatient facility. Patient can be presenting with problems that are minor to high severity. This is a grouping value set of CPT and SNOMED CT codes.
Exclusion Criteria: Excludes non-office visits, including telehealth services.

Constrained to codes in the Encounter, Performed: Outpatient Consultation value set (2.16.840.1.113883.3.464.1003.101.12.1008)

QDM Datatype and Definition

"Encounter, Performed"

Data elements that meet criteria using this datatype should document that the encounter indicated by the QDM category and its corresponding value set is in progress or has been completed.

The "Encounter, Performed" participant references the primary participant.

Previous versions of QDM included an attribute principal diagnosis, defined as the condition that, after study, was determined to be the principal cause of the admission. QDM version 5.5 addresses that concept using the diagnosis rank=1.

A QDM Known Issue has been identified related to this datatype. To see this QDM known Issue, please click here. 

Timing:

  • The relevantPeriod addresses:
    • startTime - The time the encounter began (admission time).
    • stopTime - The time the encounter ended (discharge time).
  • author dateTime references the time the action was recorded.
  • Refer to the eCQM expression to determine allowable timings to meet measure criteria.

Notes:

  • negation rationale indicates a one-time documentation of a reason an activity is not performed. Negation of QDM datatype-related actions for a reason always use the author dateTime attribute to reference timing and must not use relevantPeriod.
  • The locationPeriod is an attribute of the attribute facility location that addresses:
    • startTime - the time the patient arrived at the location. The time the encounter began (admission time).
    • stopTime - the time the patient departed from the location.
QDM Attributes

diagnoses

Coded diagnoses/problems addressed during the encounter. The diagnoses attribute has three components:

  • diagnosis (code)
  • presentOnAdmissionIndicator (code)
  • rank (positive integer)

To reference an encounter diagnosis, the expression must include the diagnosis code component. The other components are optional. The expression should only include the presentOnAdmissionIndicator if it is necessary to reference present on admission and should only include the rank if it is necessary to reference principal diagnosis.

The "Encounter, Performed" diagnosis attribute is intended to capture ALL diagnoses, including the principal diagnosis, i.e., all diagnoses addressed during the encounter represented by the diagnosis (code) used in the expression.The presentOnAdmissionIndicator (code) allows the eCQM developer to include criteria about whether each specific "Encounter, Performed" diagnosis was present at the time of admission (an indicator used to evaluate patient safety and adverse events). See presentOnAdmissionIndicator attribute definition for information about using the "Encounter, Performed" diagnosis attribute.

The "Encounter, Performed" diagnosis (rank) replaces the principal diagnosis attribute. To reference a principal diagnosis, eCQM developers should express the "Encounter, Performed" diagnosis with a diagnosis (code) and a rank of 1. See definition of rank attribute.

With an "Encounter, Performed" diagnosis, there is no dependency on the timing of the diagnosis in relation to the encounter.

  • Use of the "Encounter, Performed": diagnoses attribute component and the "Diagnosis" datatype is redundant for relating the diagnosis to the "Encounter, Performed". The "Encounter, Performed": diagnoses component syntax is preferred.
  • Referencing the same diagnosis using "Encounter, Performed" (diagnoses attribute) and "Diagnosis" (datatype) should only occur if the measure must define a specified length of a prevalencePeriod, e.g.,
    • The measure must assure that the diagnoses
      • have been present for at least some defined time period before the encounter, and
      • were addressed during the "Encounter, Performed"

relevantPeriod

Relevant Period addresses the time between the start of an action to the end of an action. Each datatype using relevant period defines specific definitions for the start and stop time for the action listed.

Note: negation rationale indicates a one-time documentation of a reason an activity is not performed. Negation of QDM datatyperelated actions for a reason always use the author dateTime attribute to reference timing and must not use relevantPeriod