In our past blog posts, Kathleen Pine and I have been writing about the process by which quality measures in perinatal care are developed, endorsed and then adopted by various entities.

The last comprehensive National Quality Forum (NQF) review of Perinatal Measures was in 2008 which endorsed 17 measures, with a few additional relevant measures added during other, subsequent reviews (e.g. Healthy Term Newborn was added as part of the Pediatric Population Review Process in 2009). As of July 8, 2011, NQF has endorsed 33 consensus standards applicable to perinatal and reproductive health in a number of previous projects.

Currently, the NQF is in the process of measure maintenance and consideration of new measures. This current project seeks to identify and endorse measures for public reporting and quality improvement addressing reproductive health, pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum care, and newborn care. In addition, this project will include maintenance of previously NQF-endorsed standards in these topic areas.

The candidate measures will be considered for NQF endorsement as voluntary consensus standards. Agreement around the recommendations will be developed through NQF's formal Consensus Development Process (CDP). This project will involve the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders and will be guided by a multiple-stakeholder Steering Committee (see below for members of this committee).

In the past month, there has been a series of 4 workgroup meetings, at which all the candidate measures have been discussed. Agendas from those meetings, and other information about the ongoing process can be found here.

There is an upcoming 2-day steering committee meeting, which is open to NQF members and the public (in person or by phone). Registration is free, and the link is provided below.

NQF Perinatal Care and Reproductive Health - Steering Committee Meeting

Register Now

Start: NOV 29, 2011 (9:30am-5:00pm EST)

End: NOV 30, 2011 (8:00am-4:00pm EST)

The Perinatal & Reproductive Healthcare Steering Committee will meet on November 29-30, 2011 at the National Quality Forum, 1030 15th Street, NW, 9th Floor, Washington DC. We respectfully request that you register so that we can adequately anticipate the number of seats and dial-in lines that will be needed. An agenda will be posted prior to the meeting.

After the steering committee meeting, the draft report is expected to be available for review and comment in January 2012. Member commenting period is 30 days. The public commenting period is 23 days (Jan 16-Feb 7, 2012). NQF members will vote in late March 2012 with a decision announced in April and board ratification in early May 2012.

For further information, contact Reva Winkler, MD, or Suzanne Theberge, MPH, at 202-783-1300 or via email at perinatal@qualityforum.org.

Listed below are the steering committee members and links to the 33 consensus standards under review.

Perinatal and Reproductive Healthcare Endorsement Maintenance

Steering Committee Member Roster

Joanne Armstrong, MD, MPH
Aetna. Sugarland, TX

Jennifer Bailit, MD, MPH
Case Western Reserve University and MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH

Scott Berns, MD, MPH, FAAP
March of Dimes Foundation and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, White Plains, NY

Jennifer Brandenburg, RN, MSN
Decatur Memorial Hospital, Cerro Gordo, IL

Sarah Brown, MSPH
National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, Washington, DC

William Callaghan, MD, MPH
Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

Charles Denk, PhD
New Jersey Department of Health, Trenton, NJ

Elizabeth Drye, MD, SM
Yale/Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) and Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

Andrea Gelzer, MD, MS, FACP
The AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies, Philadelphia, PA

Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, MS
Louisiana State University (LSU) and Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, New Orleans, LA

Craig Gilliam, BSMT, MT (ASCP), CIC
Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, AR

Kimberly D. Gregory, MD, MPH
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

William A. Grobman, MD, MBA
Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL

Mambarath Jaleel, MD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas, TX

Barbara Kelly, MD
AF Williams Family Medicine Center, Denver, CO

Teri Kiehn, MS, RNC
Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, UT

Nancy K. Lowe, CNM
University of Colorado College of Nursing, Aurora, CO

Jochen Profit, MD, MPH
Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas

Laura Riley, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH
Childbirth Connection, New York, NY

Kathleen Rice Simpson, PhD, RNC, FAAN
St John's Mercy Medical Center and Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO

Sharon Sutherland, MD
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Robert K. Watson, MD, MMM, CPE
Andrews Women's Hospital, Baylor All Saints Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Janet Young, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA

Perinatal and Reproductive Healthcare Endorsement Maintenance Measures Submitted

• 0303: Late sepsis or meningitis in neonates Risk adjusted (PDF)
• 0304: Late sepsis or meningitis in Very Low Birth Weight neonates Risk adjusted (PDF)
• 0469_PC-01: Elective Delivery (PDF)
• 0470: Incidence of Episiotomy (PDF)
• 0471_PC-02: Cesarean Section (PDF)
• 0472: Appropriate Prophylactic Antibiotic (PDF)
• 0473: Appropriate DVT prophylaxis in women undergoing cesarean delivery (PDF)
• 0474: Birth Trauma Injury to Neonate (PDF)
• 0475: Hepatitis B Vaccine (PDF)
• 0476_PC-03: Antenatal Steroids (PDF)
• 0477: Under 1500g infant Not Delivered at Appropriate Level of Care (PDF)
• 0478: Neonatal Bloodstream Infection Rate (PDF)
• 0479: Birth Dose of Hep B Vaccine (PDF)
• 0480_PC-05: Exclusive Breast Milk Feeding (PDF)
• 0481: First temperature measured within one hour of admission to the NICU (PDF)
• 0482: First NICU Temperature less than 36 degrees Centigrade (PDF)
• 0483: Proportion of infants 22 to 29 weeks gestation screened for retinopathy of prematurity(PDF)
• 0484: Proportion of infants 22 to 29 weeks gestation treated with surfactant (PDF)
• 0502: Pregnancy test for female abdominal pain patients (PDF)
• 0582: Diabetes and Pregnancy-Avoidance of Oral Hypoglycemic Agents (PDF)
• 0741: Five minute APGAR less than 7 (PDF)
• 0742: Birth Trauma (PDF)
• 0743: In-hospital Maternal Deaths (PDF)
• 0744: Uterine Rupture During Labor (PDF)
• 0745: Unplanned maternal admission to the ICU (PDF)
• 0746: In-hospital Neonatal Death (PDF)
• 0747: Admission to neonatal intensive care unit at term (PDF)
• 0748:Third or fourth degree perineal laceration (PDF)
• 0749: Unanticipated Operative Procedure (PDF)
• 0750: Maternal blood transfusion (PDF)
• 1731: Health Care-Associated Bloodstream Infections in Newborns (PDF)
• 1746: Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Group B Streptococcus (PDF)
• 1769: Adverse Outcome Index (PDF)

Posted by: Christine Morton, PhD and Kathleen Pine, UCI

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