NCQA Expands Data Validation Program
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is expanding its Data Aggregator Validation program, with QMetrics leading the latest cohort of participants. The program validates that exchanged health data is high-quality and accurately mapped between payers and providers. For large health systems, participation is becoming a key indicator of health IT maturity and data governance.
- The Data Aggregator Validation program began as a pilot in 2019 as a collaboration between NCQA and QMetrics to verify that health data has integrity from its source through to its use in HEDIS® reporting, reducing the administrative burden of manual data validation. Since its inception, the program has conducted over 100 validations across 44 organizations in 21 states. - For ICU nurses transitioning to informatics, a key certification is the Nursing Informatics-Board Certified (NI-BC) credential from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Eligibility requires a BSN, at least two years of full-time RN practice, 30 hours of continuing education in informatics, and between 1,000 to 2,000 hours of practice in informatics nursing. - A common complaint from ICU nurses about EHRs is the significant time spent on documentation, with some studies showing nurses spend over 30% of a 12-hour shift in the EHR. Specific frustrations within Epic include redundant data entry in flowsheets, poor workflow navigation, and cumbersome data entry fields that don't align with clinical practice. - To bridge clinical and technical roles, ICU nurses can leverage their experience by becoming a subject matter expert (SME) on an IT project, participating in EHR implementation teams, or serving as a "Super User" to train peers. These roles provide practical experience without requiring an immediate formal degree in informatics. - Interoperability standards like HL7 FHIR® are critical as they form the technical foundation for mandates from the ONC and CMS, which require payers and providers to enable seamless data exchange through standardized APIs. This allows for real-time, bidirectional data flow, moving beyond older, one-way transactional models. - Epic EHR optimization projects can directly address nursing workflow issues. For example, UCHealth reduced documentation time for acute care nurses by 18 minutes per 12-hour shift by redesigning flowsheets to remove unnecessary options and hide irrelevant information, saving over 64,800 nursing hours annually. - The 21st Century Cures Act is a key piece of federal legislation driving health IT priorities. It prohibits "information blocking" and pushes for the adoption of standardized APIs to give patients greater access to their electronic health information, forcing health systems to adapt their data governance and exchange practices. - Validated data is crucial for the success of value-based care models, as it ensures that performance metrics, risk stratification, and quality reporting are based on accurate and reliable information. Inaccurate data can lead to poor care decisions and undermine the financial and clinical goals of these initiatives.
