Development, Adaptation, Implementation, and Maintenance of Quality Measures for the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) (CMS-10557)

Dear PACE Administrator,
Under contract from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Econometrica, Inc., requests
your assistance in the development of health care quality measures for the PACE program. Four
measures have been selected for pilot testing:
1. Falls,
2. Injury falls,
3. Pressure ulcers, including pressure ulcer prevention, and
4. Hospital readmissions.
Versions of these measures have been endorsed by the National Quality Forum as important to measure
and report for hospitals and nursing homes. National policy organizations such as the Institute of
Medicine, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality have highlighted the need to reduce these adverse events in order to improve the quality and
safety of health care.
Your program has been randomly selected to participate in the development of the four health care
quality measures. Our research team, located at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, would like
to request your assistance in pilot data collection to explore the feasibility of collecting standardized
data on the measures for the PACE program. In addition, we would like to solicit your feedback about
the clarity of the data collection guidelines, the usefulness of the data collection forms, and the level of
effort expended to collect the data. Your input is vital to the development of quality measures that are
meaningful to the PACE program and to estimate the effort required for data collection.
Specifically, you will be asked to do the following:
1. Affirm your acceptance of this invitation to enroll in the pilot study.
2. Attend teleconference training on the measures and the data collection guidelines. The
teleconference will occur during the week of [date]. The specific date and time will be provided
to you after enrollment.
3. Coordinate and oversee the special data collection over a 1-month period ([date range]). The
data elements will intially include the following:
a. Participants ages and genders.
b. Participants who fell, setting where fall occurred, and injury level.
c. Number of pressure ulcers, by stage, risk status, and prevention activities.
d. Number of hospital admissions within the 30 days.
e. Number of PACE participants enrolled in your program each day of the month.
As data collection and testing evolve, we might determine additional data needs. We expect
that any additions will have a negligible effect on reporter burden. Data may be collected from

paper or electronic medical records maintained by health care providers, from administrative
records, and from a 1-day prevalence study for the pressure ulcer data.
4. Submit the data electronically during the first 2 weeks of [month].
5. Participate in a follow-up survey about your experience with collecting data for the measures.
Please complete this brief survey [URL here] with your intent to participate by [Day, Date].
Our research team is located in Bethesda, MD, and Kansas City, KS. If you have questions about
participation, please contact Econometrica’s lead researcher, Nancy Dunton, Ph.D., FAAN, at (913) 5881456 or [email protected].
Thank you very much for your interest and consideration.
Sincerely,
Darryl W. Roberts, Ph.D., M.S., R.N.
Project Director – CMS PACE Quality
Measurement Project
Econometrica Inc.

Nancy Dunton, Ph.D., FAAN
Research Professor
University of Kansas Medical Center School of
Nursing