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

Performance/Reporting Period
2023
Value Set Description from VSAC
Clinical Focus: The purpose of this value set is to represent concepts for encounters for outpatient interactions with a member of the medical care team.
Data Element Scope: This value set may use a model element related to Encounter.
Inclusion Criteria: Includes concepts that represent an encounter for the comprehensive history, evaluation, and management of a patient presenting with minor to high severity problems.
Exclusion Criteria: No exclusions.

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 5.6 addresses that concept using the diagnosis rank=1.

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

class

Concepts representing classification of patient encounter such as ambulatory (outpatient), inpatient, emergency, home health, virtual visits (telehealth), etc.

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" diagnoses 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" diagnoses was present at the time of admission (an indicator used to evaluate patient safety and adverse events). See presentOnAdmissionIndicator attribute definition and Section A.1.4 for information about using the "Encounter, Performed" diagnoses attribute.

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

With an "Encounter, Performed" diagnoses, 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

relevantPeriod addresses the time between the start of an action to the end of an action. Each QDM datatype using relevantPeriod 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 datatype-related actions for a reason always use the author dateTime attribute to reference timing and must not use relevantPeriod

Last Updated: Jul 15, 2022