Announcements

AHRQ awards four contracts to help improve hospital quality measurement

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded contracts totaling $1 million to four Statewide data organizations for pilot projects that are designed to help make it easier for hospitals to link administrative data with electronic clinical data, such as lab results and information about co-existing illnesses at the time of admission.

The 2-year contracts are part of AHRQ's new "Joining Forces" initiative, which will enable experts to more accurately measure the quality of hospital care. More detailed clinical information on patients at the time of admission is important because it helps researchers control for severity of illness when assessing in-hospital mortality and provide better information to clinicians and others who are working to improve the quality of care in hospitals.

Three pilot project contracts were awarded to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration's Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis, the Minnesota Hospital Association, and Virginia Health Information. In addition, AHRQ awarded a planning contract to the Washington State Department of Health's Center for Health Statistics.

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