This measure assesses the percentage of hospitalizations of adults aged 65 years and older at the start of the inpatient encounter during the measurement period, with a length of stay equal to or greater than 24 hours, who received optimal malnutrition care where care performed was appropriate to the patient's level of malnutrition risk and severity. Malnutrition care best practices recommend that for each hospitalization, adult inpatients are (1) screened for malnutrition risk or for a hospital dietitian referral order to be placed, (2) assessed by a registered dietitian (RD) or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) to confirm findings of malnutrition risk, and if identified with a "moderate" or "severe" malnutrition status in the current performed malnutrition assessment, (3) receive a current "moderate" or "severe" malnutrition diagnosis by a physician or eligible provider as defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and (4) have a current nutrition care plan performed by an RD/RDN.

UNKNOWN

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The components of this measure are supported by clinical guidance that recommends the following: (1) malnutrition screening for patients admitted into the acute inpatient care setting; (2) nutrition assessment for patients identified at risk for malnutrition or with a hospital dietitian referral order to form the basis for appropriate nutrition interventions; (3) appropriate recognition, diagnosis, and documentation of the nutrition status of a patient in order to (4) address their condition with an appropriate plan of care and communicate patient needs to other care providers (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2017).

The process for risk identification, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of malnutrition necessitates a multi-disciplinary care team that begins with the identification of an initial risk population for a more thorough assessment by the RD/RDN. The RD/RDN, in turn, provides the necessary treatment recommendations to address nutritional status utilizing a nutrition diagnosis and care plan, along with the clinical indicators that inform a medical diagnosis of malnutrition completed by a physician or eligible provider as defined by CMS. The four measure observations individually will only provide a fraction of the necessary information on quality of care for patients at risk for or with malnutrition. For example, knowing which patients have been assessed out of those who were initially identified as at risk, but not knowing if the appropriate proportion of patients were screened upon admission, would be an insufficient assessment of quality of care.

Implementation of this measure supports timely malnutrition risk screening and hand off to RDNs for appropriate nutrition assessment for identified patients during the current hospitalization. For patients identified with a moderate or severe malnutrition by the nutrition assessment, best practice also recommends a medical diagnosis by a physician or other eligible clinician and the execution of the nutrition care plan by an RD/RDN. Evidence demonstrates that implementing a standardized protocol for screening, assessment, diagnosis, and care planning results in better identification of malnourished patients and subsequent improvements in rates of associated nutrition interventions. Outcomes modeling, and those reported in other studies, also demonstrate the benefits to patient outcomes, including reduced risk of 30-day readmissions, length of hospital stays, and complications, as well as improved quality of life after hospitalization (Sriram, 2017).

American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) clinical guidelines on nutrition screening, assessment, and intervention in adults indicate that screening for nutrition risk is suggested for hospitalized patients (Mueller, et al., 2011).

This guideline places nutrition assessment and screening in the context of intervention as part of nutrition care. Screening those individuals at risk for malnutrition is the first step in nutrition care as risk for malnutrition, identified by nutrition screening, is associated with longer length of hospital stay, complications, and mortality. Malnutrition screening is also a predictor of mortality risk.

Malnourished patients, identified by nutrition assessment tools, have more complications and longer hospitalizations than do patients with optimal nutrition status. Such patients, identified by nutrition assessment tools, have more infectious and noninfectious complications, longer hospital length of stay, and greater mortality.

Nutrition intervention is recommended for patients identified by assessment as at risk for malnutrition or malnourished. Nutrition intervention with associated monitoring and evaluation plants in patients identified as at risk for malnutrition or malnourished improves clinical outcomes. Nutrition interventions and their associated monitoring and evaluation plans in malnourished patients are associated with improved nutrition status, nutrient intake, physical function, and quality of life. Hospital readmissions, inpatient length of stay, and complications were reduced with increased nutrition support interventions.

This measure is constructed of four clinically eligible components that are aggregated as an arithmetic average of eligible hospitalizations and expressed as a percentage. The four populations used to calculate the four components may differ and the measure observations for the four components do not need to be performed sequentially.

This eCQM is an episode-based measure. An episode is defined as each inpatient hospitalization or encounter with a length of stay of greater than or equal to 24 hours among individuals 65 years of age and older at the start of the inpatient encounter.

This FHIR-based measure has been derived from the QDM-based measure: CMS986v4.

Please refer to the HL7 QI-Core Implementation Guide (https://hl7.org/fhir/us/qicore/STU4.1.1/) for more information on QI-Core and mapping recommendations from QDM to QI-Core 4.1.1 (https://hl7.org/fhir/us/qicore/STU4.1.1/qdm-to-qicore.html).