UDS Reporting
Why Is My UDS Hypertension Denominator Wrong?
A troubleshooting approach for hypertension denominators that do not match expectations, working from encounter capture through exclusion logic.
By Jessica R. Smith, BSN · Updated · 9 min read
Start with the population, not the report
A denominator that looks wrong is usually a population definition problem rather than a reporting bug. The productive sequence is: who was included, why, and which of those inclusions your EHR logic actually evaluated.
Content in review
A troubleshooting order that saves time
1. Qualifying encounters
If encounter capture is off, everything downstream is off. See what counts as a qualifying encounter for UDS clinical measures.
2. Diagnosis capture and problem list hygiene
Diagnoses recorded only in narrative text, or never carried onto the problem list, silently shrink a denominator.
3. Exclusion and exception logic
These are frequently conflated in EHR builds. The distinction is covered in UDS exclusions vs. exceptions.
See UDS measure tracking
Track UDS measure performance across periods so a shifting denominator is visible early.
See UDS measure tracking