Purpose and Sponsorship
NQMC is a Web site intended to make evidence-based quality measures, related summaries, and companion materials widely available to health care professionals. NQMC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. AHRQ sponsors and maintains the NQMC pursuant to statutory mandates (1) to coordinate, conduct, and support research, demonstrations, and evaluations related to the measurement and improvement of health care quality, (2) to develop research and build partnerships with health care practitioners and health care systems to promote patient safety and reduce medical errors, and (3) to promote the use of information systems to develop and disseminate quality and outcomes research. The quality measures and some of the related materials on this site are the products of named organizations that are solely responsible for their content. Objective summaries of the measures at this site are prepared by AHRQ's contractor, ECRI Institute, in consultation with the responsible organizations that prepared the respective measures. The authors and publishers of every document at this site are identified at the end of each document.
Intended Audience
The informational offerings presented on this site are intended primarily for the following audiences:
- Physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals and provider organizations
- Health plans, health systems, health care organizations, hospitals, and integrated health care delivery systems
- Medical specialty and professional societies
- Researchers, measure developers, and information specialists
- Federal, State, and local government health care policymakers and specialists
- Employee benefit managers and purchasers of care
- Medical librarians and medical writers
- Students
Other Audiences Including Patients
If you are a patient and are accessing this site, you should understand that the information presented is intended and designed for the use of the expert audiences previously identified. You should seek assistance from a health care professional in interpreting these materials and applying them in individual cases.
Definition and Selection of Evidence-based Quality Measures and Related Materials
The NQMC database contains evidence-based quality measures meeting specific inclusion criteria that rely on the following definitions:
- A patient is a person receiving care or treatment for their health. In NQMC, the phrase "user of care" is synonymous with the word patient. Some measures in NQMC relate to a population or group of persons including users and nonusers of care.
- Clinical is an adjective indicating of or for the treatment of patients.
- Quality of care is the degree to which health care services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.1
- A measure is a mechanism to assign a quantity to an attribute by comparison to a criterion.
- A quality measure is a mechanism to assign a quantity to quality of care by comparison to a criterion.
- Clinical performance is the degree of accomplishment of desired health objectives by a clinician or health care organization.
- A clinical performance measure is a subtype of measure that is a mechanism for assessing the degree to which a provider competently and safely delivers clinical services that are appropriate for the patient in the optimal time period.
Although AHRQ and its contractor, ECRI Institute, set minimum inclusion, NQMC does not make judgments regarding the comparative quality of information on the site. NQMC verifies that each measure meets the established minimum criteria for inclusion, but does not verify or evaluate the accuracy or appropriateness of the individual measure content.
Disclaimers
NQMC Disclaimer
The National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC) does not develop, produce, approve, or endorse the measures represented on this site.
All measures summarized by NQMC and hosted on our site are produced under the auspices of medical specialty societies, relevant professional associations, public and private organizations, other government agencies, health care organizations or plans, individuals, and similar entities.
Measures represented on the NQMC Web site are submitted by measure developers, and are screened solely to determine that they meet the NQMC Inclusion Criteria which may be found at http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/about/inclusion-criteria.aspx.
NQMC, AHRQ, and its contractor ECRI Institute make no warranties concerning the content or its reliability and/or validity of the quality measures and related materials represented on this site. Moreover, the views and opinions of developers or authors of measures represented on this site do not necessarily state or reflect those of NQMC, AHRQ, or its contractor, ECRI Institute, and inclusion or hosting of measures in NQMC may not be used for advertising or commercial endorsement purposes.
Readers with questions regarding measure content are directed to contact the measure developer.
Liability Disclaimer
With respect to the information available from this site, neither AHRQ or its contractor, ECRI Institute, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, clinical efficacy or value of any such information or any apparatus, product, or process described or referenced in NQMC material or in material at other sites linked to NQMC.
In addition, AHRQ and its contractor, ECRI Institute, cannot endorse, or appear to endorse, derivative or excerpted materials, and cannot be held liable for the content or use of adapted products that are incorporated on other Web sites. Any adaptations of these electronic documents and resources must include a disclaimer to this effect. Advertising or implied endorsement for any commercial products or services is strictly prohibited.
Endorsement Disclaimer
Reference on this Web site to any specific commercial products, process, service, manufacturer, company, or trademark does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by AHRQ or its contractor, ECRI Institute. As an agency of the U.S. Government, AHRQ cannot endorse or appear to endorse any specific commercial products or services.
Permission to Reproduce Content
Permission and requirements regarding reproduction and downloading of respective documents and files are specific to each measure and related documents in the NQMC database. Please read carefully and comply with specific notices on downloading and reproduction contained within each document. Documents available from this site may be protected under U.S. and foreign copyright laws unless otherwise noted. Permission to reproduce or to disseminate further may be required.
Site Protection and Monitoring Notice
To assure the integrity of information on this site and to make it responsive to public needs and demand requirements, AHRQ will monitor system access against actions to disable these online services and against deliberate efforts to gain unauthorized access to restricted portions of the NQMC Web site.
By accessing this site you are consenting to system monitoring for law enforcement and other purposes. AHRQ does not restrict linked sites from obtaining information about visitors to their sites.
Links to Other Sites
Our Web site has links to Federal agencies, measure developing and submitting organizations, and selected links to other Web resources. The Privacy Policy Notice does not apply to those other sites. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of that site.
NQMC is not responsible for the availability or content of these external sites, nor does NQMC endorse, warrant, or guarantee the products, services, or information described or offered at these other Internet sites. Users cannot assume that the external sites will abide by the same Privacy Policy to which NQMC adheres.
1Institute of Medicine. Lohr KN, editor(s). Medicare: a strategy for quality assurance. Vol. 1.
Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1990. p. 21.
