Patient counseled about advanced health care decision making palliative care, or end of life issues

Measure Purpose: Engage patients in end of life planning

The numerator: Patients or caregivers who were counseled about advanced health care decision-making, palliative care, or end-of-life issues* at least once annually

*See full specifications for additional details

is divided by

The denominator: All patients with a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy

Exclusions are removed from the denominator for:

• Patient is unable to communicate and caregiver is not available
• Not indicated because of early stage of disease without any comorbid complications

Key Phrases

Key phrases you should use to meet this measure include:

• Counseling provided about advance health care decision-making
• Counseling on advance care plan

Measure Calculation Example

Dr. Robinson had 15 patients with muscular dystrophy between January 1 and December 31 of the measurement year. This is the denominator. Two patients were unable to communicate and did not have a caregiver present. These patients are removed from the denominator.

Of the remaining 13 patients, five were given counseling on advance care planning. This is the numerator.

Quality of care = 5/(15-2). Dr. Robinson has a score of 38% for this measure.