AHRQ Programs and Projects on Quality and Safety

Appendix A: Online AHRQ Quality-Related Resources

Online resources available from AHRQ to facilitate quality improvement and patient safety efforts include:

• The 2004 National Healthcare Quality Report and 2004 National Healthcare Disparities Report are available at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/measurix.htm.
• National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™, www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov, is a database and Web site for information on specific evidence-based health care quality measures and measure sets.
• Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®), www.cahps.ahrq.gov/, helps consumers identify the best health care plans and services for their needs.
• Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) Web site, www.webmm.ahrq.gov, offers interesting cases of medical errors and patient safety problems. Every month, five cases of medical errors and patient safety problems are posted, which raise key issues about patient safety and systems improvement.
• AHRQ's Quality Indicators (QIs), www.qualityindicators.ahrq.gov, use hospital administrative data to highlight potential quality concerns, identify areas that need more study, and track changes over time. The AHRQ QIs include Inpatient Quality Indicators, Prevention Quality Indicators, and Patient Safety Indicators.
• HCUP User Support (HCUP-US) Web site, www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/home.jsp, is designed to answer questions on AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP); provide detailed information on HCUP databases, tools, and products; and offer technical assistance to HCUP users.
• TalkingQuality, www.talkingquality.gov, a Web site designed for individuals and organizations interested in educating consumers about health care quality, offers innovative ideas on ways to communicate complex quality information to consumers.
• National Guideline Clearinghouse™, www.guideline.gov, is a comprehensive database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. Its purpose is to provide an accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines and to further their dissemination and use.
• Patient Safety Network (PSNet), http://psnet.ahrq.gov, features the latest news and essential resources on patient safety. It offers weekly updates of patient safety literature, news, tools, and meetings and annotated links to patient safety research and other related information.
• Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation, www.ahrq.gov/qual/advances, describes what federally funded programs have accomplished in understanding medical errors and implementing programs to improve patient safety. It is sponsored jointly by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Department of Defense—Health Affairs.
• Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospculture, can be used to assess the safety culture of a hospital as a whole or for specific units within hospitals, track changes in patient safety over time, and evaluate the impact of patient safety interventions.
• AHRQ National Resource Center for Health Information Technology, http://healthit.ahrq.gov/home, serves as a one-stop resource for the latest tools, best practices, and research results that result from AHRQ's health IT initiative and from other resources. The Resource Center also provides direct technical assistance to AHRQ projects involved in developing, testing, and using health IT applications.
• Child Health Care Quality Toolbox, www.ahrq.gov/chtoolbx, provides tips on how to determine whether a child health program is functioning effectively and locating, adapting or developing the tools to evaluate pediatric health care quality.
• Recent AHRQ-funded research on children's health care, by State, can be accessed at www.ahrq.gov/child/usamap.htm.
• Diabetes Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action and its companion Workbook can be downloaded at www.ahrq.gov/qual/diabqualoc.htm. AHRQ developed in these new tools in partnership with the Council of State Governments to help States assess the quality of care for diabetes and create quality improvement strategies.
• The Safety Net Monitoring Initiative, www.ahrq.gov/data/safetynet, presents baseline data and tools to help monitor the status of local safety nets in providing health care to low-income and other vulnerable populations. This joint effort is led by AHRQ and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
• Information on projects, activities and resources from the Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics is available on the CERTs Web site, www.certs.hhs.gov.
• AHRQ's searchable Grants On-Line Database, www.gold.ahrq.gov, provides abstracts of AHRQ-funded grants as well as research conducted by AHRQ staff.

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