Quality Reporting Document Architecture

Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) is a HL7 Clinical Document Architecture designed for submission of electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM).[1]

History

Demonstration of healthcare quality has become a priority in the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care in the United States. Historically, quality measurements were commonly tabulated manually from paper charts and unstructured data within EHRs. One of the rationale for implementation of EHRs in healthcare was to create an automated method for reporting key quality metrics. Such is evident in the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (Meaningful Use). Increasingly, regulatory and accreditation agencies such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission have required hospitals and providers to submit quality data in electronic format captured in the structured fields of the EHR, known as eCQM. The information is exported in a file format known as Quality Report Data Architecture (QRDA).