Submit Measures

About NQMC

History and Mission

NQMC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is a database and Web site for information on specific evidence-based health care quality measures and measure sets. NQMC is sponsored by AHRQ to promote widespread access to quality measures by the health care community and other interested individuals. NQMC has been available as a public resource since February 2003.

NQMC's mission is to provide practitioners, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining detailed information on quality measures, and to further their dissemination, implementation, and use in order to inform health care decisions. NQMC builds on AHRQ's previous initiatives in quality measurement, including the Computerized Needs-Oriented Quality Measurement Evaluation System (CONQUEST), the Expansion of Quality of Care Measures (Q-SPAN) project, the Quality Measurement Network (QMNet) project, and the Performance Measures Inventory (PMI).

See the About page for additional information about this national initiative.

Who are our users?

The informational offerings presented on this site are intended primarily for the following audiences:

• Physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals and provider organizations
• Health plans, health systems, health care organizations, hospitals, and integrated health care delivery systems
• Medical specialty and professional societies
• Researchers, measure developers, and information specialists
• Federal, State, and local government health care policymakers and specialists
• Employee benefit managers and purchasers of care
• Medical librarians and medical writers
• Students

Information available on the NQMC Web site is used by professionals affiliated with a variety of institutions including:

• Inpatient Care Hospitals and Other Provider Organizations
• Outpatient Ambulatory Settings
• Government Agencies
• Oversight Organizations/Purchasers
• Academic Institutions
• Physician Offices

Benefits of Participation

Dissemination of Information

NQMC reaches a large audience within the United States and abroad, offering developers an effective vehicle for the dissemination of quality measures that meet the NQMC Inclusion Criteria. These measures are featured in the Announcements and identified on the Measures in Progress page. When measure summaries are published to the NQMC Web site, they are announced on our New This Week page. To receive notification when new information is available including publication of your organization's measures, subscribe to the New This Week weekly e-mail.

Summary Usage Reports

Participating measure developing organizations are provided the benefit of receiving measure summary usage reports (annually and by special request) that highlight the number of times (i.e., page views) that each of their measures were accessed on the NQMC Web site over a specified period of time. This information is an indicator of dissemination of the published measure(s) within the NQMC audience.

Your Role as a Developer

What will you need to do?

The success of NQMC depends on the active participation of contributing measure developers. Your role as a participant is to:

• Provide current contact information for your organization.
• Notify NQMC when changes are made to your organization's measure(s).
• Review the measure summary developed for your organization's measure(s) for accuracy and completeness prior to posting to the NQMC Web site.
• Confirm currency of your organization's published measure(s) and organization's contact information on an annual basis.
• Provide necessary copyright (if applicable). NQMC staff are available to assist you with this effort.

Note: For measures in the public domain, no copyright permission is required.

To facilitate submission of your/your organization's health care quality measures, we offer this guidance:

1. Download the Measure Submission Kit. This Kit includes various documents to assist you in the submission process. See Submission FAQs for examples of measure documentation submitted to NQMC from participating measure developers.
2. Include the following in your Measure Submission:
   • The measure specifications and any supporting documentation.
   • The name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of an appropriate contact person.
   • A completed Copyright Agreement Form (if applicable).
3. Prepare your submission using the following guides:
   • Review the NQMC Inclusion Criteria (available in the Measure Submission Kit). Measure submissions must meet NQMC's Inclusion Criteria and submitted documentation must include (at a minimum) the measure title, rationale, description of the denominator and numerator, domain, data source, and documentation of evidence supporting the measure.
   • Refer to the Measure Submission Checklist (available in the Measure Submission Kit) for guidance on how to prepare your submission. This checklist will assist you in providing the necessary information and/or documentation that is required by NQMC.
   • Complete the Copyright Agreement Form (available in the Measure Submission Kit). If your organization's measures are not in the public domain, NQMC must receive copyright permission to abstract and post the measure summaries before your organization's measures can be included on the NQMC Web site.
4. Your Measure Submission can be submitted in one of two ways:
   • Electronic submissions (preferred). Requests to submit electronically should be sent to Vivian Coates, NGC/NQMC Project Director, at info@qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov.
   • Two (2) paper copies of the measure documentation and its supporting documentation. Include a listing of the titles being submitted for consideration. Paper copy submissions should be sent to:

     Vivian Coates
     NGC/NQMC Project Director
     ECRI Institute
     5200 Butler Pike
     Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Questions regarding submissions can be directed to Ms. Coates at info@qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov.

For Additional Information

Additional information regarding NQMC is available from Mary Nix, Project Officer, Center for Outcomes and Evidence, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), e-mail: info@qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov.

Are You Also a Guideline Developer?

Visit our Sister Site, the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) , and submit your evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

NQMC provides two reference tools to assist in your submission; the Template of Measure Attributes and the Glossary. The NQMC Template of Measure Attributes provides descriptions of each attribute in a Measure Summary. Attributes required to meet the NQMC Inclusion Criteria are in bold-face type. The NQMC Glossary provides clarifying definitions and examples of terms used to describe common properties of health care quality measures used in measure summaries.

1. What are NQMC's criteria for inclusion?
2. Is a submitted measure automatically in the public domain or can a proprietary measure be submitted and included in NQMC without relinquishing ownership of the instrument?
3. Are there copyright restrictions on the information accessed through the NQMC Web site at www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov?
4. What are examples of measure documentation submitted to NQMC?
5. How does NQMC use the submitted measure documentation?

1. What are NQMC's criteria for inclusion?

   See the Inclusion Criteria page.

2. Is a submitted measure automatically in the public domain or can a proprietary measure be submitted and included in NQMC without relinquishing ownership of the instrument?

   Submitting a measure to NQMC does not mean that you will be relinquishing ownership of your instrument (should it be accepted for inclusion in NQMC). NQMC creates a structured abstract of each measure (measure summary). Complete measure specification information is not included in the measure summaries. In addition, providing direct access to the full-text of your instrument/measure on the NQMC Web site is not required. Alternatively, you may provide us with ordering information for users who wish to acquire the full measure from the developer.

3. Are there copyright restrictions on the information accessed through the NQMC Web site at www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov?

   There are no copyright restrictions that prevent users from copying and/or distributing content found on NQMC, provided that all content is appropriately identified. NQMC's content (i.e., measure summaries, expert commentaries) is available for public use, and we encourage the distribution of our content, particularly for educational purposes. NQMC content may not be used for commercial and/or product endorsement purposes.

   Although most of NQMC's content is free of restrictions, exceptions occur where individual measure developers have requested otherwise. Refer to the Copyright Statement field at the end of each summary to determine whether such restrictions apply and if users need to contact the measure developer.

   NQMC seeks and receives permission from measure developers to include summaries of the original measure specifications that appear at www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov. NQMC does not have the authority to grant copyright clearance for the original measure specifications upon which the summaries are based. If you are interested in using/distributing the original measure specifications, you must contact the measure developer.

4. What are examples of measure documentation submitted to NQMC?

   Measure developers submit measure specifications to NQMC in a variety of forms including the following:

   • Annual Reports
   • CD-ROMs/Databases
   • Clinical Practice Guidelines/Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation Toolkits
   • Patient Surveys/Questionnaires
   • Published Journal Articles
   • Technical Specifications Manuals/Technical Manuals
   • User Manuals
   • Various Information Accessible via Measure Developing Organizations' Web Sites
     • PDF/WORD Documents
     • Web-based Measure Kits
5. How does NQMC use the submitted measure documentation?

   This documentation is reviewed against the Inclusion Criteria and subsequently used to develop summaries of measures that meet these criteria.