This article first appeared in the January 2021 issue of Joint Commission Perspectives®, the official newsletter of The Joint Commission.
Effective July 1, 2021, data collection for a new standardized performance measure will be required for The Joint Commission advanced Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement (THKR) certification program. The new measure assesses a patient’s functional and health status postoperatively. Organizations now will be required to assess not only the patient’s preoperative status, but also their postoperative status, with the goal of converting this measure to an outcome measure in the future to show improvement after surgery. AAOS AJRR participation is the sole pathway to achieving the registry requirement of the Advanced Certification for THKR.
The following table lists the THKR standardized measure set; see the underlined text for the new measure:
All currently certified THKR programs, as well as those seeking initial certification are required to collect data on this new measure beginning with discharges on and after July 1, 2021. The new performance measure will be collected through the AJRR. Organizations then will enter monthly data points (numerator and denominator values) for the measure and report data quarterly to The Joint Commission via the Certification Measure Information Process (CMIP) available on an organization’s Joint Commission Connect® extranet site.
The new measure was created to improve feasibility for registries and add value for surgeons. It will also reduce the administrative work needed to track the full episode of care.
The inpatient and outpatient THKR measure specifications are detailed in the Specifications Manual for Joint Commission National Quality Measures. Questions regarding the measures may be sent via the Performance Measurement Network Q&A Forum.
Copyright 2021 The Joint Commission
Joint Commission Perspectives®, January 2021, Volume 41, Issue 1