Hospitals : Public Reporting : CMS Abstraction and Reporting Tool (CART)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) developed this free data abstraction tool to allow health care providers to collect and analyze quality improvement data on any of the four hospital quality improvement topics. Through data collection, retrospective analyses and real-time reporting, CART enables hospitals to comprehensively evaluate and manage quality improvement efforts.

Who Will Benefit From Using the CMS Abstraction and Reporting Tool (CART)?

• Hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) that choose to work on improving measures that they did not select to report to JCAHO
• Any hospital that does not have a data abstraction and analysis system in place to monitor its performance on the CMS quality of care measures
• Hospitals that wish to report data on the CMS quality measures to participate in the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), formerly the National Voluntary Hospital Reporting Initiative (NVHRI), or the Annual Payment Update (APU) reporting initiative

CART's key functions and benefits include:

• Meets CMS measurement specifications for performance monitoring and data collection with a single application
• Allows for concurrent data collection and reporting
• Maintains security of patient data, including Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance
• Receives updates and enhancements to meet quickly evolving quality improvement needs
• Performs real-time and/or retrospective analyses
• Identifies areas for new system changes or enhancements to existing systems based on data collected
• Available at no cost to the hospital
• Free technical support is provided by NMMRA

Visit QualityNet for more information and documentation on the latest version of CART, including:

• CART Downloads & Information
• General Abstraction Guidelines and Topic Specific Resources (e.g., paper tools, exclusion criteria)
• CART Training Resources

CART 4.1 must be used for third quarter 2006 (20063Q) and forward abstractions. Click here to listen to and view the recorded WebEx presentation "Using CART 4.1" for an overview on how to use CART 4.1, including entering abstractions and running reports. Click here for the slide presentation only.

Health care providers can use the secure QualityNet Web site to upload CART files and data to the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Clinical Warehouse.

CART includes several useful report functions. For information on reports available in CART and instructions on running those reports, refer to Chapter 7 of the CART Users' Guide.

For more information, see also:

• QIO Clinical Data Warehouse

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