Modernizing healthcare quality measures to improve efficiency and usability

For the past decade, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has advanced the Meaningful Measures Initiative to focus quality reporting on the outcomes that matter most—such as preventable hospital admissions, care coordination, and patient safety—across post-acute care settings. The goal is straightforward: ensure quality metrics drive better outcomes for patients while minimizing unnecessary reporting burdens for providers.

But modernizing the measures themselves did not fully address the challenge. Like many federal agencies, CMS relied on legacy systems to collect, store, and manage quality data across programs. Entering and extracting information from these systems was cumbersome and slow, limiting CMS’ ability to operationalize quality measurement and use data to drive timely improvement.

CMS partnered with ICF to modernize its data collection and reporting ecosystem. We supported development of key components of the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES), a cloud-based platform for collecting and managing patient assessments and survey data. We also modernized the Quality Measures Implementation and Reporting (QMIR) platform—making it easier for federal and state agencies, PAC providers, and other stakeholders to access and use quality reporting data generated through iQIES.

Bringing greater efficiency to quality measurement

The iQIES project modernized the tech stack used to collect patient assessment data and generate quality measures data. After the modernization, users could access iQIES through a secure web-based platform rather than solely through CMS network connections. This reduced the burden on providers who needed to submit data or access reports.

The QMIR project shifted data processing and reporting into a cloud-based ecosystem, allowing for parallel processing and faster reporting. Our teams also incorporated human-centered design processes to help deliver an intuitive platform for end users. The modernized platform allowed users to quickly process numerous assessment records and quality measures at once to generate reports.

The broad range of tools created in the iQIES and QMIR projects gave our teams the flexibility to respond to rapidly developing, complex, and unexpected events. PAC providers could request data suppression through CMS processes when errors were identified, policies changed, or extraordinary circumstances—such as natural disasters—affected reporting. This approach allowed teams to pivot quickly, ensuring that PAC providers and the public had accurate information as conditions changed.

Improving user experience in quality reporting

In addition to process efficiencies, the iQIES and QMIR projects sought to improve the legacy applications’ overall user experience. Quality measures reports were reimagined and redesigned to make better use of space while conveying more information.

For example, one Meaningful Measure focuses on Transfer of Health Information (TOH). This metric tracks whether key health information—including the patient’s active medication list—is shared with the person responsible for their care after the patient leaves a care setting. The TOH measure supports CMS’ goal of effective care coordination, because ensuring PAC providers have an accurate medication list reduces the risk of errors during care transitions.

In iQIES, providers report whether they have transferred the patient’s medication list. This data contributes to an existing iQIES report that helps PAC providers improve patient care processes, supporting better patient outcomes. This information is also displayed on the Care Compare website, where the public can compare and evaluate providers to make informed care decisions.

QMIR follows this process for all four PAC settings (IRF, LTCH, HHA, and SNF), and reports can be run for organizations that administer more than one care setting.

Applying federal product management expertise to quality measurement

The iQIES and QMIR projects demonstrate how ICF’s product management expertise bridges the gap between technology and evolving healthcare policy. We pair in-house subject- matter experts with technologists in cross-functional fusion teams. This allows us to develop solutions that deliver mission impact—not technology for technology’s sake.

To learn more about how this approach supports efficiency and usability in quality measurement, read the full iQIES case study.