AHRQ Quality Indicators Software

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provides free software for organizations to apply the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) to their own data to assist quality improvement efforts in acute care hospital settings. 

• The  QI SAS Software must be run in the SAS® statistical software package that must be obtained separately.  It is often preferred by researchers who have millions of records and want to write programs that use the statistical capabilities available in SAS.
   
• The QI Windows Software has a graphical user interface and is often preferred by non-programmers.  It requires SQL Server®, a free version of which may be downloaded from this page. 

Both versions include all of the AHRQ QI modules: Prevention Quality Indicators, Patient Safety Indicators, Inpatient Quality Indicators , and the Pediatric Quality Indicators.  Both versions are able to compute observed rates for all indicators and both versions allow the comparison of observed rates to expected rates that are specific to each population and case mix.  

QI SAS Software

The QI SAS modules are programs that run in the SAS® statistical software package. To use these modules, users must have access to SAS® which may be purchased from The SAS Institute.

All necessary components for running the software are included in the zip file, but users must provide a hospital discharge data file in the specified format. The software documentation describes the procedures for implementing the AHRQ QIs and highlights features of the analytic approach of particular interest to users. The documentation and user guide are not included in the software zip file and should be downloaded separately.

• Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) for SAS®

  • PSI SAS Software, Zipped, Version4.0 - June 2009  (Updated!)

  • PSI SAS Software Documentation  (Updated!)

  • PSI SAS Software Composite Indicators Documentation

  • Link to Other PSI Documentation

• Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQI) for SAS®

  • IQI SAS Software, Zipped, Version 4.0 - June 2009

    (Updated!)

  • IQI SAS Limited License APR-DRG Grouper, Version 3.2, March 2008

  • IQI SAS Software Documentation  (Updated!)

  • IQI SAS Software Composite Indicators Documentation

  • Link to Other IQI Documentation

• Pediatric Quality Indicators (PedQI) for SAS®

  • PDI SAS Software, Zipped, Version 4.0 - June 2009

    (Updated!)

  • PDI SAS Software Documentation  (Updated!)

  • PDI SAS Software Composite Indicators Documentation

  • Link to Other PedQI Documentation

• Prevention Quality Indicators (PQI) For  SAS®

  • PQI SAS Software, Zipped, Version 4.0 - June 2009

    (Updated!)

  • PQI SAS Software Documentation  (Updated!)

  • Link to Other PQI Documentation

   

• Population Files for Use With SAS® QI Software

  • 1996-2009 Population Files, Zipped.  Version 4.0 - June 2009

    (Updated!)

The population files are now a separate download and may be used with the PSI, IQI, PDI and PQI modules for Area-level indicators.

---

QI Windows Software

The QI Windows Application is easy to use with step-by-step instructions on loading your data and verifying that the data is in the format required.  Users can look at the results for individual cases, the organization as a whole, or for subgroups based on patient demographics.

The AHRQ QI Windows Application may be installed on platforms that meet the following minimum requirements. 

• Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP
• Microsoft .NET Framework ®  (Included)
• Microsoft SQL Server ® (Included)
• Monitor screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher
• Pentium III-600 with 128MB of Memory  (1GHz with 512 MB recommended)

Software 

The AHRQ QI Windows Application does not require the purchase of any 3rd party statistical software package.  However, in order to install and run the application, users must have Microsoft .NET® installed, and they must have an available Microsoft SQL Server® database.  Public use versions of both can be downloaded from this page.

• Documentation

  • AHRQ QI Windows Application Documentation, Version 3.2, March 2008

   

  • AHRQ QI Windows Application Documentation, Version 4.0, June 2009

    (Updated!)

  • Release Notes, Version 3.2a

  • Installation Guide, Version 3.2

  • Installation Guide, Version 4.0

    (Updated!)

   

• Module Documentation

  • Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) Documentation

  • Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQI) Documentation

  • Pediatric Quality Indicators (PedQI) Documentation

  • Prevention Quality Indicators (PQI) Documentation

Please read the Installation Guide before downloading the following software.

• Microsoft SQL Server

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
    - OR -

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Edition  (For older PCs.  See the Installation Guide for information.)
     

• Microsoft .NET Version 2.0

  • dotnetfx.exe
     

• AHRQ QI Windows Application v 3.2a, May 2008

  • Executable Setup File — 28 MB

  • Release Notes

  
  

• AHRQ QI Windows Application v 4.0, June 2009

  • Executable Setup File — 27 MB  (Updated!)

  • Release Notes  (Updated!)

   

SQL Server and .NET are provided free of charge by Microsoft.  For more information please see the following links on the Microsoft website:  (this will take you away from the AHRQ website)

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition ®
• Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine ®
• Microsoft .NET Framework ®