Media Contact:
Ken Powers
Media Relations Manager
630-792-5175
kpowers@jointcommission.org
(OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – November 20, 2009) Beginning next year, Joint Commission accredited hospitals will be able to report on a set of perinatal care core measures to meet Joint Commission accreditation requirements. The perinatal care measure set will replace the existing pregnancy and related conditions measure set. Data collection is set to begin with April 1, 2010 discharges.
The five measures have been endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and represent three domains of care: assessment/screening, prematurity care and infant feeding. Hospitals that voluntarily choose to use this set of measures will collect and report data on the following measures:
- Elective Delivery
- Cesarean Section
- Use of Antenatal Steroids
- Health Care-Associated Bloodstream Infections in Newborns
- Exclusive Breast Milk Feeding
“The performance measures in The Joint Commission’s perinatal care measure set are evidence-based and afford accredited hospitals the opportunity to use a standardized approach for assessing quality in perinatal care” says Jerod M. Loeb, Ph.D., executive vice president, Division of Quality Measurement and Research, The Joint Commission.
The perinatal care measures will be part of 10 measure sets available for selection in The Joint Commission’s ORYX performance measurement initiative. Hospitals are required to collect and transmit data to The Joint Commission for a minimum of four voluntarily selected core measure sets or a combination of applicable core measure sets and non-core measures based on the patient population they serve. The Joint Commission first began requiring accredited hospitals to collect data on standardized—or core—performance measures in 2002. These standardized measures are integral to improving the quality of care provided to hospital patients and bringing value to stakeholders by focusing on the processes and results of care. To learn more about the perinatal care measures, visit http://manual.jointcommission.org/releases/TJC2010A/. For questions about the measure selection process, please contact Frank Zibrat, associate director, ORYX Implementation, at fzibrat@jointcommission.org or 630-792-5992.
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