Slide Presentation from the AHRQ 2007 Annual Conference

Composites, Benchmarks and Geographic Variation

• AHRQ development of indicators of key concepts critical to inform efforts to improve performance
• Composites:
  • A limited number of key indicators enables view of overall patterns
  • Can "drill down" to understand variation
• Benchmarks:
  • Top percentiles (hospitals; nursing homes; geographic areas; systems) provide targets
  • Goal: Improve and narrow the distribution between leading/lagging
• Geographic variations and cross-cutting analyses