In An Effort To Increase Data Reliability, The Joint Commission Has Implemented A Voluntary Program Of Validation For Core Measures Titled Category Assignment Agreement Rate (CAAR). This Program Is A One-To-One Comparison Of The Original Abstraction (And Abstractor) And A Re-Abstraction. While Currently Voluntary, Expectations Are The Program Will Eventually Become Mandatory. Current Objectives Include A Re-Abstraction Of 12 Cases Per Quarter Sampled From Abstractions Previously Submitted To TJC. There Should Be At Least One Of Each Time Case That Was Previously Submitted Including Inpatient, Outpatient And Behavioral Health. The Objective Is To Determine Consistency In Abstraction And To Highlight Knowledge Deficiencies Between Abstractors, Providing An Opportunity For Enhanced Learning...

The Joint Commission Has Mandated All TJC-Approved PMS Software Vendors Develop And Implement A Module Within Their Applications In Order To Process And Provide Comparison Capabilities For Re-Abstraction Efforts. The Software Vendors Are Required To Report To TJC Which Hospitals Are Participating At This Point, But Are Not Asking For Validation Percentages At This Time. Information Is Not Publicly Reported...Yet.

In Operation Since 2005, DASpecialists Has Become The Most Experienced And Knowledgeable Outsourcing Provider Of Abstraction & Analysis Services And Education To Hospitals.  DAS Assists Hospitals To Meet These IRR/CAAR Requirements Through The Use Of Professional Abstraction Personnel For Data Collection, Data Abstraction And Data Entry Into Each Hospital's Existing Measure Software System. We Provide Cost-Effective Retrospective And Modified Concurrent Abstraction Solutions For Numerous Voluntary And Mandated Outcome Measures Via Remote Access To Your Hospital's EMR And Other Applicable Applications

DASpecialists Also Provides Inter-Rater Reliability (IRR) And CAAR Re-Abstraction And Audit Services For Hospitals With A Need To Review Internal Staff Abstraction Accuracy Rates For The Following Measure Sets & Registries

  • CathPCI Registry®

  • ACTION Registry®-GWTG™

  • ICD Registry™

  • Vascular Quality Initiative®

  • STS-Adult Cardiac National Database

  • STS-Thoracic National Database

  • STS-Congenital National Database

  • Core Measures (IP & HOP)