"Patient Characteristic"
Data elements that meet criteria using this datatype should document a characteristic of the patient not represented by one of the more specific Individual Characteristic datatypes. Note, individual patient characteristics have not been remodeled as part of the new QDM entity, Patient to allow backward compatibility rather than requiring re-expression of all existing characteristics in eCQMs.
Timing: The time the characteristic is authored.
Individual Characteristic
authorDateTime
The time the data element was entered into the clinical software. Note, some datatypes include both relevant dateTime and author dateTime attributes. When both are present, author dateTime is included to accommodate negation rationale.
The author dateTime addresses when an activity is documented. Documentation can occur at the beginning, during, at the end, or subsequent to the end of the activity. The author dateTime should be used only if the relevantPeriod cannot be obtained or to represent the time negation rationale is documented.
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.