As the name implies, core measure #16 dictates that a facility must administer medications electronically using an “assistive technology.” For NextGen Inpatient Clinicals clients, this would consist of implementing BCMA, or barcoded-medication administration.
Although this is a core measure, many of the NextGen® Hospital Solution’s facilities may be excluded. If a facility has an average daily inpatient census of fewer than 10 patients, the facility does not need to meet this measure and may attest to an Exclusion. (The average daily inpatient census can be determined by taking the total number of patients admitted during the previous calendar year and dividing by the number of days in that calendar year, taking leap year into account.)
Unlike many other reports, the eMAR core measure report will count total number of medications ordered, not number of patients. (For example, one patient could have five medication orders, so this would increase the report by five.)
The denominator is composed of all the completed medication orders that were given. If a medication order has three doses, all three doses have to be given (or marked as “Not Given”) before this medication would be available on the report. After all three doses are given, the denominator of the report increases by one.
To increase the numerator, ALL medication doses must be given using BCMA. For example, if a patient has one medication ordered with three doses due, all three doses must be given using BCMA. If one dose is given manually (and not scanned) or marked as “not given,” then that medication would increase the denominator of the report, but not the numerator. If a second medication was ordered for that patient, and all doses were given using BCMA, then the report would show both medications in the denominator, with one increasing the numerator and the other NOT increasing the numerator.
If a medication is cancelled or discontinued after it was ordered, this medication will not be seen in the denominator or numerator and will not appear in the report at all. Essentially, this acts as if the medication was never ordered.
To meet this measure, more than 10% of all medication orders must be given using the BCMA technology available in NextGen® Inpatient Clinicals. For further information on setting up and using BCMA, please view the NGC v2.6 BCMA training videos and review the documentation titled: BCMA Best Practice Admin Guide and BCMA Best Practice User Guide, both available in the Help menu of NextGen® Inpatient Clinicals 2.6, on the Knowledge Exchange, or contact your Account Manager to receive copies of the documentation.
Available resources:
Hospital Solutions – BCMA – Using BCMA
Hospital Solutions – BCMA – Setting Up BCMA
NextGen Clinicals 2.6 BCMA Best Practice User Guide
NextGen Clinicals 2.6 BCMA Best Practice Admin User Guide
NextGen Clinicals 2.6 BCMA Admin User Guide – Addendum A Barcode Linking