Function and Outcomes Research for Comparative Effectiveness in Total Joint Replacement and Quality Improvement (FORCE-TJR), the most comprehensive national registry for total hip and knee joint replacement patients and their outcomes, is now certified as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR).
In meeting QCDR requirements, FORCE-TJR has successfully collected and tracked more than 30,000 patients with total joint replacements across the US, in more than 150 provider institutions. The FORCE-TJR registry continues to expand, providing patient and disease tracking, implant performance, patient-reported outcomes, and quality monitoring of total joint replacements.
With QCDR certification, FORCE-TJR is able to complete the collection and submission of Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) quality measures on behalf of member hospitals and physicians, allowing FORCE-TJR members to avoid the 2016 payment adjustment of 2.0%.
“The value of being involved in a registry such as FORCE-TJR is that I can concentrate on my patient and my practice,” said Courtland Lewis, MD, Orthopedic Surgery Chief, Department of Orthopedics, at Hartford Hospital and core member of FORCE-TJR. “FORCE-TJR makes it easy to capture and report this data to QCDR and PQRS for incentive payments, internal quality monitoring, and improving the value of the care we provide to patients and insurance plans.”
Courtland Lewis, MD
As part of this certification, FORCE-TJR has developed new non-PQRS measures, which include:
• Pain and functional status assessment for hip and knee replacements
• Improvement in pain and function after hip and knee replacements
• Assessment and improvement on patients with osteoarthritis in the hip or knee
• Mental health assessment for patients who undergo hip and knee replacements
“The new QCDR designation allows FORCE-TJR to define new quality measures, including patient-reported outcomes, and to submit these data to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on behalf of our members—without any additional data collection. The data serve both their internal quality monitoring and meet the CMS mandate,” said Patricia Franklin, MD, FORCE-TJR’s registry director.
FORCE-TJR, originally a 4-year, national research project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is the first registry for total joint replacement to identify risk-adjusted national benchmarks, including patient risk factors, and other clinical measures, to guide surgeon and patient decisions regarding timing of surgery and optimal patient selection.
FORCE-TJR is now serving as a comprehensive orthopedic registry, expanding to enroll surgeons and hospitals beyond the original Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded cohort.
In addition to assisting with reporting requirements and securing quality incentive payments, the FORCE-TJR registry provides access to national TJR benchmarks, real-time patient-reported outcome scoring, comprehensive, comparative arthroplasty practice feedback and data to improve patient care, and compare performance to peer surgeons and institutions.