Survey: Most Hospitals are Far From Ready for the 2017 eCQM Reporting Deadline

The study found that only 18% of hospitals answered that they were on track for the February 2017 deadline, and that less than 2% would be ready to submit right away. In fact, of the hospitals surveyed, 14% said that they were not planning on submitting eCQMs at all, and that accepting applicable penalties and risking losing incentive payments for 2018 seems to be their best option. Furthermore, 29% of the respondents who are not planning on submitting said that it would actually be more financially beneficial to follow this plan. 

Why are hospitals having such a difficult time meeting the reporting deadline? Blame electronic health records. The facilities which answered that they would be requesting an extraordinary circumstances waiver, or would not be submitting at all, stated that they either had a newly-implemented EHR or that their current EHR was inadequate for gathering the needed data.

While preparing eCQMs using insufficient EHRs is no doubt a frustrating and daunting task, most of the facilities surveyed answered that they felt that they would be able to get support from their EHR vendors and therefore would ultimately be able to report eCQMs by the deadline. 

What is perhaps most striking about this data though, is that the majority of hospitals do not feel that eCQMs even provide an accurate picture of clinical quality, and according to the article posted on EHR Intelligence, "Only 18 percent of respondents said eCQMs accurately display a hospital’s quality, while 29 percent were neutral, 26 percent disagreed, and 18 percent strongly disagreed. Likewise, only 15 percent of respondents would use eCQMs to measure quality if they weren’t required."

So what would you use to measure and report on quality if it were up to you? What about a system that automatically tracks your team's performance on each case as well as how you've progressed over time? One that lays it all out for you so you can see where your pitfalls are and how you should best address them? Makes sense to us!