Specifications Manual

The Specifications Manual for National Hospital Inpatient Quality Measures (Specifications Manual) is the result of the collaborative efforts of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission to publish a uniform set of national hospital quality measures.

Over time, it will be necessary to present more than one version of the manual on this Web page so that a specific data collection time period (i.e., based on hospital discharge dates) can be associated with the applicable manual. Find the appropriate data collection period below and select the associated Specifications Manual.

The Release Notes for each version of the manual outline the changes associated with that specific release and include corrections and clarifications based on ongoing alignment discussions between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Joint Commission.

Paper tools for use in abstracting data for each collection (discharge) period are provided with the Specifications Manual, beginning with Version 2.3b.

Data Collection Time Period	Specifications Manual
01/01/18 - 06/30/18	Version 5.3a
01/01/17 - 12/31/17	Version 5.2b
07/01/16 - 12/31/16	Version 5.1
10/01/15 - 06/30/16	Version 5.0b
01/01/15 - 09/30/15	Version 4.4a

Timelines for Specifications Manuals, Release Notes

The timelines listed below outline the anticipated schedule for updates to the Specifications Manual for National Hospital Inpatient Quality Measures for the designated year.