MINNEAPOLIS, April 8, 2008—The National Quality Forum has introduced seven new performance measures, and a new framework for reporting health care-associated infection (HAI) data.

The new standards will make more uniform the reporting of infection information from state to state.

The seven performance measures are in three categories: intravascular catheter-associated bloodstream infections; ventilator-associated pneumonia and respiratory illness; and HAIs in pediatric populations.

The new HAI measures, which join 13 others that were previously endorsed by the NQF, were developed through a 15-month project to find and endorse HAI data-reporting performance measures and are part of the forum’s National Voluntary Consensus Standards program.