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Pioneers in Quality Program Fact Sheet

  • Pioneers in Quality® is a collaborative program to improve health care quality and patient safety through education, innovation, and recognition of pioneering practices for Joint Commission stakeholders.

The Pioneers in Quality program started in 2016 to assist Joint Commission-accredited hospitals on their electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) journey to improve eCQM data use for quality improvement. It has expanded over time to include additional key components related to eCQM and chart-abstracted data.

Hospitals collect performance measurement data and submit the data to The Joint Commission as part of its ORYX® performance measurement requirements, and as applicable to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for quality reporting programs. The Joint Commission continues to work to align measures as closely as possible with CMS.

Key components of the Pioneers in Quality program include:

  • Educational content, such as webinars for continuing education (CE) units:
    • Pioneers in Quality general session webinars (i.e., ORYX reporting requirements, on-boarding for Direct Data Submission platform).
    • Expert to Expert webinar series to connect hospitals with technical expertise on eCQMs, clinical quality language (CQL) and measure specifications.
    • Proven Practices webinar series to share peer-to-peer successes, tips, and guidance regarding health IT and performance measure use of eCQM and chart-abstracted data.
  • An online resource portal is offered to health care organizations collecting and submitting data.
  • Recognition for eCQM pioneering practices.
  • Proven Practices Collection describes eCQM data utilization and optimization success stories.
  • Outreach is available through the Joint Commission’s speaker’s bureau.

Pioneers in Quality Proven Practices Recognition
Annually, through its Pioneers in Quality Program, The Joint Commission recognizes health care organizations and health systems that have demonstrated advanced use of measures (eCQM and chart-abstracted measures) and health information technology (HIT) for performance improvement. There are several different efforts and activities for which recognition can be earned and there are also several levels of achievement.

Expert Contributor:

  • Hospitals or health care systems that submit eCQM Proven Practices that are determined by the Pioneers in Quality Advisory Panel to have exceptionally strong applicability and specific, concrete recommendations for other hospitals and health care systems to improve their own eCQM use. Solutions are featured in the Joint Commission’s Proven Practices Collection and are presented during a Pioneers in Quality webinar.
  • Hospitals also can achieve Expert recognition by participating in specific Joint Commission measure development and testing activities (i.e., meet the participation and eligibility criteria for an Expert-level project).

Solution Contributor:

  • Hospitals that submit a Proven Practice that The Joint Commission uses to inform its eCQM Pioneers in Quality program activities and determine trends to include within its Proven Practices Collection. These organizations contribute to the body of knowledge about the current eCQM environment, including the barriers and challenges to eCQM data collection and use for quality improvement.
  • Hospitals also can achieve Solution Contributor recognition by participating in specific Joint Commission measure development and testing activities (i.e., meet the participation and eligibility criteria for a Solution Contributor-level project).