National Quality Forum Health IT Utilization Expert Panel

Here is another post from the HIMSS National Quality Forum Task Force with this week’s topic on the NQF Health IT Utilization Expert Panel. Jonathan French, Director, Healthcare Information Systems, HIMSS

by Cecilia Backman, MBA, RHIA, CPHQ, Associate Director, Health Information Management, Parkland Health & Hospital System

The NQF Health IT Utilization Expert Panel convened in January 2010 by the National Quality Forum and Health and Human Services in response to the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The Health IT Utilization Expert Panel is charged with building upon earlier work completed by the Health Information Technology Expert Panel.

Following enactment of HITECH, this panel focused on examining, defining, and organizing the information needed to measure effective use of health IT to better understand how health IT tools are used, and ultimately, to improve the efficiency, quality and safety of healthcare delivery.

Thus, this panel will look at how:

To gauge penetration of IT use within the healthcare industry. This measurement includes the use of functionality as defined by meaningful use.
To measure and assure, as a result of this penetration, the patient and industry do not experience unintended consequences resulting from the use of health IT.

Structured to enhance collaboration between health IT vendors, purchasers, implementors and certifying bodies, the panel also focuses on clinical workflow so that IT can serve as an enabler for healthcare best practices.

The panel is creating a Health IT Use Data Model to measure IT use. The model defines a method for expressing data that can be captured by clinical systems to understand and measure their usage.

The model’s components include an actor, content and action.

The actor is a person or electronic system that performs an action required to measure IT utilization.
The content is the concept on which an action happens.
The action itself is something a measure recommends a person or a computer do.

The use of a model will allow for standardization of measurement, and it will offer definition for IT vendors and standards development organizations, such as HL7, on expected use of health IT systems.

Note: The slides associated with this blog go into greater detail on the Health IT Utilization Expert Panel. Please refer to them for more detail.

In our next blog, we will focus on the National Quality Strategy. The National Quality Strategy is pursuing three broad aims. These aims will guide and assess local, state, and national efforts to improve the quality of healthcare.

Thanks for reading this post and please continue to read our weekly posts on the HIMSS Blog so that you stay abreast of how NQF is supporting the industry, public and government in improving healthcare quality.

HIMSS NQF Task Force launched the “HIMSS NQF Healthcare IT Projects” blog and slide series that highlight NQF’s healthcare IT projects and connects the dots between the projects.

The slide decks appear on the HIMSS NQF website by topic and corresponding blog posts that provide an educational overview of each topic, with the slide deck, to better understand the projects and how they impact the industry.

The blog post include:

Learn More on the HIMSS website.

Cecilia Backman, MBA, RHIA, CPHQ, Associate Director, Health Information Management, Parkland Health & Hospital System

Ms. Backman focuses on review of the EMR in an effort to assure optimal clinical documentation as well as compliance with federal, state and regulatory requirements in the maintenance of the health record.