Children's Health Care Quality: Activities Related to the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA)

1. Opportunity for Input: CHIPRA Pediatric Quality Measures Program: Request for Nominations for Expert Panelists—Nominations due June 29, 2011


A Federal Register Notice [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-06-09/pdf/2011-14112.pdf] seeks nominees for experts willing to help establish criteria for recommending improved CHIPRA children's healthcare quality measures for Medicaid and CHIP programs, as required by the Pediatric Quality Measures Program established by CHIPRA (the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act [Public Law 111-3]). We are seeking experts in measurement science, health care quality measurement, children, adolescent and perinatal health and health care, disparities, e-measurement, and Medicaid and CHIP operations.

Approximately 15 experts will participate in a meeting to be held in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area on September 18, 2011. In future years, expert panels will be convened to evaluate new and enhanced children's health care quality measures using these criteria. Important guidance for submission of nominations is included in the Federal Register Notice. Nomination packages are due June 29, 2011 to chipra@ahrq.hhs.gov.

The CHIPRA Pediatric Quality Measures Program is a collaborative effort of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. For more information about the Pediatric Quality Measures Program, visit the CHIPRA section of the AHRQ Web site.
Children's Health Care Quality: Activities Related to the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA)


2. Surgery and Imaging Rates for Children's Kidney Stones are Stable, but Vary Greatly from Hospital to Hospital

About 22 percent of 7,921 children with kidney stones underwent surgery and 80 percent underwent stone-related diagnostic imagery between 1999 and 2008—rates that remained stable throughout the period.
However, computerized tomography (CT) use increased from 26 percent to 45 percent and plain x-rays of kidneys, ureters, and bladders plus excretory urogram use decreased from 59 percent to 38 percent during the same period, according to a study of trends in imaging and surgical management for this condition by Boston-based researchers. This study was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (T32 HS00063).

3. Studies Examine Black Mothers' Choices for Infant Sleep Position and Location

Despite a 50 percent decline in the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the United States since the American Academy of Pediatrics first recommended that infants sleep on their backs in 1992, black infants remain twice as likely to die from SIDS as white infants. They are also about twice as likely to sleep on their stomachs (prone position) as other racial or ethnic groups.
Two studies authored by researchers at Children's National Medical Center used focus groups or individual interviews with 83 mothers in the Washington, D.C., area to examine the factors affecting black mothers' choices about sleep position and location for their infants. Both studies were supported in part by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HS16892).