Depression outcome for patients with Ms

Measure purpose: Improve or maintain depression outcomes for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)

The numerator: Patients whose most recent score indicates results are maintained or improved on a validated depression screening instrument for patients with MS in past 12 months

is divided by

the denominator: All patients aged 12 years or older with a diagnosis of MS.

Exclusions are removed from the denominator:

• Patient unable or declines to complete a depression screening 

Key Phrases

Examples of key phrases you could use to meet the measure include:

• Beck Depression Inventory/BDI (followed by numerical score)
• PHQ-9 (followed by numerical score)
• MS Depression Rating Scale (followed by numerical score)
• Declined to complete depression scale

Measure Calculation Example

Dr. Smith sees 100 patients aged 12 years and older diagnosed with MS between January 1 and December 31. This is the denominator.

Two patients decline to complete depression questionnaires. These two patients are removed from the denominator as exclusions.

Of the remaining 98 patients, 16 patients had clinical depression screening rates that were maintained or improved in the measurement period. This is the numerator.

Quality of patient care = 16/98 (100-2). Dr. Smith has a score of 16.3% for this measure.