The Joint Commission has recognized five hospitals/health care systems as 2019 Pioneers in Quality™ Expert Contributors for their efforts to lead electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) knowledge and utilization. This year’s Expert Contributors are:

• Baptist Health, Jacksonville, Florida
• Johns Hopkins Health System, Baltimore
• Memorial Hermann/QPSIC & ISD Enterprise Analytics, Houston
• HCA/Terre Haute Regional Hospital, Terre Haute, Indiana
• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh 

Through eCQMs – which rely on structured, encoded data present in the electronic health record (EHR) – health care organizations electronically collect and transmit data on the quality of care patients receive. This data is analyzed to measure and improve care processes, performance and outcomes.

“We are proud to recognize this year’s Expert Contributors. Their efforts have offered unique insight into eCQMs and health-information technology,” says David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, executive vice president, Division of Health Care Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission. “We encourage other health care organizations to learn from these eCQM leaders to successfully use data to drive their quality improvement efforts.”

The Expert Contributors will present during an upcoming Pioneers in Quality™ 2019 Proven Practices webinar series hosted by The Joint Commission. The organizations will share their eCQM practices and successes with other hospitals and health care systems across the country:

• August 27, 11 a.m. CT: “Improving eCQM Accuracy to Drive Quality Improvement”
• September 12, 1 p.m. CT: “Moving from Retrospective to Concurrent eCQM Review to Streamline eCQM Accuracy Activities and Improve Results”
• September 24, 11 a.m. CT: “Proactive Hospital/Health System Engagement to Undertake eCQM Development and Testing”

The Expert Contributors also will be featured in the Pioneers in Quality™ 2019 Proven Practices Collection in November. The collection will detail the organizations’ proven practices, offering innovative ideas to help accredited hospitals overcome eCQM and health IT barriers and challenges by learning from the experiences of their peers. All initiatives in the collection are replicable and hospitals/health care systems are encouraged to tailor them to their individual organization’s performance measurement and quality improvement efforts.

Pioneers in Quality™ is a Joint Commission program to assist hospitals on their eCQM journey to improve eCQM data use for quality improvement. The program includes educational programs such as webinars for continuing education units (CEUs), a resource portal, hospital recognition for pioneering practices, an advisory council, a publication to share peer-to-peer learning, speaker’s bureau outreach and work with eCQM stakeholders.  For more information, visit the Pioneers in Quality™ website.