The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has announced a new Distinction in Patient Experience Reporting. Because consumer experience is a critical component of quality of care, giving more prominence to patient engagement is a crucial change to thePatient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program. NCQA developed the optional Distinction in Patient Experience Reporting to help practices capture patient and family feedback through the newly developed (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) CAHPS PCMH Survey. The CAHPS PCMH Survey assesses several domains of care:
- Access
- Information
- Communication
- Coordination of care
- Comprehensiveness
- Self-management support and shared decision making.
NCQA PCMH-Recognized practices may use the CAHPS PCMH survey to obtain the distinction. Practices without recognition may still submit CAHPS PCMH results, but may earn distinction only after achieving NCQA PCMH Recognition.
Submitted data will be used to develop a benchmarking database that will allow comparison across practices. In addition to earning distinction and being listed in directories as having distinction, practices will receive credit in PCMH 2011.
The program details include:
- Practices must use an NCQA certified vendor to ensure a standardized method of data collection and reporting. (A list of certified vendors will be available on the NCQA Web site in December.)
- NCQA-Recognized practices, or practices applying for recognition, are eligible for the distinction. All practices may submit data, but may not be eligible for the distinction.
- There are two data submission periods per year: the first is in April 2012; the second in September 2012.
- The distinction is effective for one year after NCQA receives the practice’s data. Practices must submit data annually (through the vendor) to maintain distinction. Practices have the option of submitting data during both data submission periods, but it is not required.
Ignatius Bau 