The National Quality Forum (NQF) Board of Directors has approved an expansion of settings for two nursing home measures: #0680, Percent of Nursing Home Residents Who Were Assessed and Appropriately Given the Seasonal Influenza Vaccine (Short-Stay); and #0682, Percent of Residents Assessed and Appropriately Given the Pneumococcal Vaccine (Short-Stay).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the measure steward, expanded the measures beyond the nursing home setting to include inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term acute care hospitals. The ad-hoc review request fell under the third NQF criterion for justifying a review: material changes to a currently endorsed measure.
Technical experts were convened to assess the proposed measure changes and agreed to recommend expansion of both measures given the following reasons: the age range was expanded to reflect current evidence; the time window was made consistent with standard specifications and harmonized with other NQF-endorsed measures; data on the validity was provided; and the measure submission form was modified to ensure that the documentation supports the changes made.