Introduction
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed an array of health
care decision making and research tools that can be used by program managers, researchers,
and others at the Federal, State and local levels. The Quality Indicators (QIs) are measures
of health care quality that make use of readily available hospital inpatient administrative
data. The current AHRQ QI modules expand HCUP QIs. The QIs
can be used to highlight potential quality concerns, identify areas that need further study
and investigation, and track changes over time.
The current AHRQ QI modules represent various aspects of quality:
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Prevention Quality Indicators
identify hospital admissions in geographic areas that evidence suggests may have been avoided through access to high-quality outpatient care. (first released November 2000, last updated March 2012)
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Inpatient Quality Indicators reflect quality of care inside hospitals, as well as across geographic areas, including inpatient mortality for medical conditions and surgical procedures. (first released May 2002, last updated March 2012)
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Patient Safety Indicators
reflect quality of care inside hospitals, as well as geographic areas, to focus on potentially avoidable complications and iatrogenic events. (first released March 2003, last updated March 2012)
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Pediatric Quality Indicators
use indicators from the other three modules with adaptations for use among children and neonates to reflect quality of care inside hospitals, as well as geographic areas, and identify potentially avoidable hospitalizations. (first released April 2006, last updated March 2012)
The AHRQ QIs are used in free software distributed by AHRQ. The software
can be used to help hospitals identify quality of care events that might need further study. The
software programs can be applied to any hospital inpatient administrative data. These data are
readily available and relatively inexpensive to use.
NEWS
2012
- September 19, 2012 — Program lead for AHRQ’s award-winning MONAHRQ program
- September 13, 2012 — Release of Updated V4.3 Comparative Data documentation, and V4.4 Comparative Data documentation
- July 10, 2012 — EXTENDED Federal Register Notice for workgroups on ICD-10-CM/PCS Conversion of Quality Indicators
- June 28, 2012 — AHRQ Quality Indicators Newsletter and User Spotlight
- June 4, 2012 — Federal Register Notice for workgroups on ICD-10-CM/PCS Conversion of Quality Indicators
- May 7, 2012 — Maintenance release of AHRQ Quality Indicators Software for Windows V4.3a
- April 23, 2012 — AHRQ Quality Indicators Software for Windows and SAS Version 4.4
- March 30, 2012 — Release of AHRQ Quality Indicators Software for Windows and SAS Version 4.4
- February 17, 2012 — CLARIFICATION: Issue Identified with the Risk-of-Mortality Assignments Returned from the Limited License edition of the 3MTM All Patient RefinedTM DRG (APR-DRG) Grouper Version 28 Embedded in the AHRQ QI Software Windows and SAS Version 4.3
- February 15, 2012 — Issue Identified with 3MTM All Patient RefinedTM DRG (APR-DRG) Grouper Version 28 Released with Windows and SAS Version 4.3
- January 24, 2012 — AHRQ Hospital Quality Indicators Toolkit Released