How to Build a Measure Set
How To Build A Measure Set is a suite of tools intended to assist state agencies, private purchasers and other stakeholders in creating health care quality measure sets. The tools are centered around an interactive spreadsheet into which users enter data and review in one document a variety of important decision inputs for consideration. In addition, users receive an alignment score for the measure set under consideration.
The tool emphasizes local needs and decision-making for quality measurement while maximizing opportunities for alignment with federal, state and commercial measure sets.
Users can filter through the nearly 900 measures included in the “Measure Crosswalk” tab of the Buying Value Measure Selection Tool by each measure’s Domain (e.g., Acute Illness Care, Prevention/Early Detection), Condition (e.g., Cardiovascular, Diabetes), Measure Type (e.g., Outcome, Process), Population (e.g., Adult, Pediatric), and Data Source (e.g., Claims, Clinical Data). Each measure now has a Disparities-sensitive Status, which indicates whether there is evidence of disparity in the provision of care captured by the measure. For a complete list of the criteria used, please refer to the Measure Categorization Schematic.
Users establish a framework for decision-making on the measure set by completing the Getting Started Questionnaire.
Users consider potential technical and programmatic criteria for measure selection and pick the ones that best fit their needs using the Measure Selection Criteria Worksheet. The supplementary Examples of Measure Selection Criteria document provides criteria and principles for measure selection from three different national programs, including NQF, CMS, and IOM, and three states.
Users identify existing measure sets from programs and purposes similar to their own in the “Measure Crosswalk” tab of the Measure Selection Tool Spreadsheet as reference points to compare the candidate measures they will consider. The supplementary Measure Sets to Identify and Review document provides a comprehensive list of measure sets that may be used locally. For an introductory walkthrough of the Measure Selection Tool Spreadsheet, click the video to the left or refer to the Measure Selection Tool User Instructions.
Users choose candidate measures from existing measure sets previously identified, as well from the compiled lists of Most Frequently Used State Program Measures, By Domain and the Key Domains with Limited Measure Availability.
Users can filter through the nearly 900 measures included in the “Measure Crosswalk” tab of the Buying Value tool by each measure’s Domain (e.g., Acute Illness Care, Prevention/Early Detection), Condition (e.g., Cardiovascular, Diabetes), Measure Type (e.g., Outcome, Process), Population (e.g., Adult, Pediatric), and Data Source (e.g., Claims, Clinical Data).
Users enter all candidate measures – including any of their own additions – in Columns A through C of the Measure Selection Tool Spreadsheet. Measures selected from the “Measures Crosswalk” will automatically populate the Spreadsheet with information. Information on additional measures added by users are entered manually.
Next, users check candidate measures against the selection criteria selected in Step Two and the “additional” measure sets added in Step Three and score their alignment.
At this point, data entry in the Measure Selection Tool Spreadsheet is complete. It automatically compares all candidate measures with national sets, and produces five scores for alignment. The Spreadsheet also provides a score for alignment with the user’s measure selection criteria.
As a final step, users review the data displayed in the Measure Selection Tool Spreadsheet to evaluate candidates based on the scores and make their ultimate measure selections.
