If your electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) performance numbers do not reflect your workflow and are not what you would expect them to be, then it’s likely that you have mapping inaccuracies. What is data mapping, and why is it important for accurately calculating quality measure data?

CMS recently published the FY 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule which includes several changes to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program and Medicare Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program for eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs). For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

CMS recently published the FY 2024 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS) Final Rule which finalized changes to the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) program. All IPFs, which include psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric units of an acute care hospital or critical access hospital, paid under the IPF PPS must meet IPFQR reporting requirements. For the full text of the proposed rule, see the Federal Register.

CMS recently published the CY 2024 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Final Rule which included numerous updates to MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) and Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

CCMS recently released the CY 2024 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Proposed Rule, which included proposals for the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program (OQR) Program.For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

What are indexes? Simply put, indexes in a SQL Server database are structures that speed up data access from tables and views. There are two types of indexes: clustered and nonclustered. Since any database table can only have a single primary key (therefore, a single clustered index), nonclustered indexes are what we as developers and analysts can optionally use to improve query performance. 

For many people in a hospital environment, using a PC for most of the day means navigating through MEDITECH applications and menus as part of the usual routine. Inevitably however, none of us can do our job without a browser and the Internet. Fortunately for most MEDITECH users (sorry for those of you still using MAGIC), there’s a nifty utility built into MEDITECH that can be custom configured to make web URLs available right from your menu: External Links.

When your EHR is no longer available to retrieve the data that allows your clinicians to provide the best and safest care for your patients, what do you do?  We have become so dependent at having data at our fingertips that when it stops working or we have to wait for it, we grow impatient, it creates chaos, and we find other avenues to retrieve the data. Quality of care and safety for our patients is the number one priority in healthcare. 

CMS recently published the FY 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Proposed Rule which includes several proposed changes to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program and Medicare Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program for eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs). For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

CMS recently published the FY 2024 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS) Proposed Rule which proposed changes to the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) program. All IPFs, which include psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric units of an acute care hospital or critical access hospital, paid under the IPF PPS must meet IPFQR reporting requirements. For the full text of the proposed rule, see the Federal Register.

Effective January 1, 2023, new and revised requirements to reduce health care disparities will apply to organizations in the Joint Commission’s ambulatory health care, behavioral health care and human services, critical access hospitals, and hospital accreditation programs. 

What are the differences between Hospice and Palliative care?