Overview

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Digital Quality Measures (dQMs) Content Package Implementation Guide (IG) defines the standards for reporting the initial population and supplemental data elements required to calculate metrics for NHSN dQM measurement. This IG does not define how to calculate a specific NHSN dQM or event of interest.

This IG complies with the NHSN dQM Reporting IG, published by Health Level Seven International (HL7®) for general requirements for submissions to NHSN. The NHSN dQM Reporting IG specifications will be revised in accordance with any changes to NHSN reporting requirements. Figure 1 shows how the CDC NHSN dQM Content PackageIG fits into the broader landscape of NHSN surveillance and quality measurements.

Three sources support NHSN dQMs:

• HL7 Balloted Framework IGs: National HL7 implementation guides that provide the core FHIR resource structures
• NHSN Content Package IGs: NHSN-specific implementation guides that define measure profiles and logic
• NHSN Protocols and Metrics: Clinical protocols and specifications that define the measure requirements

The HL7 NHSN dQM Reporting IG, a HL7 balloted framework IG, provides the overall framework for the HL7 NHSN dQM Reporting IG. The CDC NHSN dQM IG, an NHSN Content Package IG, contains three groups of protocols ad metrics consisting of measure profiles and their related CQL logic:

• Acute Care Hospital (ACH) Monthly Profiles and CQL
• ACH Daily Profiles and CQL
• Long-term Care (LTC) Monthly Profiles and CQL

Several NHSN measure concepts are represented in this content package, including:

• Glycemic Control
• Adult Sepsis
• Bacteremia & Fungemia
• C. difficile Infection
• Respiratory Pathogens Surveillance (RPS)
• Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AU/AR)

All parts of the framework ultimately depend on patient-level information for reporting.

All measure reporting artifacts and profiles relate to patient-level data extraction, representation, and submission for quality measurement.

Purpose

These specifications define the data content requirements for submissions for the CDC NHSN dQMs Content Package to NHSN through NHSNLink.

Relationships to Other Standards

This IG has the following dependencies:

1. HL7 FHIR Release 4
2. US Core 6.1.0
3. US Core 3.1.1
4. QI Core 6.0.0
5. HL7 NHSN dQM 1.0.0
6. HL7 CRMI 1.0.0
7. Quality Measure IG 5.0.0
8. Clinical Quality Framework Common FHIR Assets 4.0.1
9. Data Exchange for Quality Measures (DEQM) 5.0.0

Audience

The audience for this work is all developers who want to enable their software systems to report surveillance data to the NHSN via FHIR dQMs.

Acknowledgements

Lantana Consulting Group, Inc. produced and developed the content in this IG under contract to the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Role	Name	Organization	Email Address
Primary Editor	Rick Geimer	Lantana Consulting Group	rick.geimer@lantanagroup.com
Primary Editor	Corey Spears	Lantana Consulting Group	corey.spears@lantanagroup.com
Primary Editor	Aaron Nusstein	Lantana Consulting Group	aaron.nusstein@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Andrea Benin	CDC	aqb4@cdc.gov
Co-Editor	Kristina Betz	CDC	rly7@cdc.gov
Co-Editor	Amrit Kerr	Lantana Consulting Group	amrit.kerr@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Sheila Abner	CDC	sha8@cdc.gov
Co-Editor	Nadine Shehab	Lantana Consulting Group	ftn0@cdc.gov
Co-Editor	Jennifer Watkins	CACI	nub7@cdc.gov
Co-Editor	Raymond Dantes	CDC	vic5@cdc.gov
Co-Editor	David deRoode	Lantana Consulting Group	david.deroode@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Zabrina Gonzaga	Lantana Consulting Group	zabrina.gonzaga@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Sean McIlvenna	Lantana Consulting Group	sean.mcilvenna@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Lynn Perrine	Lantana Consulting Group	lynn.perrine@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Kim Figueroa	Lantana Consulting Group	kim.figueroa@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Mary-Margaret Richter	Lantana Consulting Group	mm.richter@lantanagroup.com
Co-Editor	Shanai Thornton	Lantana Consulting Group	shanai.thornton@lantanagroup.com