Re-tooling an Existing Clinical Quality Measure for Chronic Opioid Use to an Electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) for Post-Operative Opioid Prescribing: Development and Testing of Draft Specifications

Abstract

The objective was to re-tool the existing claims-based measure NQF2940 "Use of Opioids at High Dosage in Persons Without Cancer" to an electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) for use by orthopedic practices to assess potentially inappropriate high-dose post-operative opioid prescribing practices. Measure specifications were revised based on stakeholder feedback, initial testing and a targeted review of the literature. The eCQM was developed and alpha tested on 9,108 opioid-naive patients who received an elective primary total hip or total knee arthroplasty at Mass General Brigham formerly Partners HealthCare System) from 2016 to 2018. Thirty-eight percent of patients were prescribed high doses (defined as an average daily dose ≥90 morphine milligram equivalents) for the duration of their post-operative opioid prescriptions, demonstrating that this is a meaningful performance measure with substantial opportunity for improvement. National implementation and reporting of this eCQM could be used to facilitate quality improvement to deliver standardized, safe and high-quality care.