Slide Presentation from the AHRQ 2007 Annual Conference

Output: What's Being Produced?

• We define two major categories of outputs:
  • Health services
  • Health outcomes
• Being explicit about the output is critical (and often not done)
• Producers tend to define outputs
  • Financial flows (how the product is purchased) influence definitions, for example:
    • Hospital day vs. a discharge
    • Quality adjusted life year vs. a covered life