Learn About AHRQ’s New Quality Indicators Software in September 16 Webinar

Today’s Headlines:

• Learn About AHRQ’s New Quality Indicators Software in September 16 Webinar.
• Handoff Tool Helps Reduce Medical Errors and Adverse Events.
• Webinar Recording Now Available: Understanding CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure Requirements.
• New Guide Helps Practices Support Adolescent Behavioral Health.
• Register for Upcoming Webinars.
• AHRQ Stats: Expenditures for Heart Disease Treatment.  
• New Research and Evidence.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Learn About AHRQ’s New Quality Indicators Software in September 16 Webinar

Join a webinar presented by the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QI) Team to learn about highlights of the AHRQ QI v2025 software on September 16, 3:30–4:30 p.m. ET. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

The v2025 Quality Indicators software calculates risk-adjusted rates based on ICD-10-CM/PCS coded all-payer 2020, 2021, and 2022 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases. The 2022 State Emergency Department Databases also were used to develop the Prevention Quality Indicators in Emergency Department Settings (PQE) module and Maternal Health Indicators (MHI) module.

The v2025 software release includes the following:

• New: CloudQI Software now supports Inpatient Quality Indicators and Prevention Quality Indicators in Inpatient Settings, in addition to Patient Safety Indicators (PSI), PQE, and MHI beta module. This release offers enhanced flexibility and functionality, including hosted deployments and multiuser support.
• New: The MHI module has been expanded in v2025 with new beta indicators.
• Support for fiscal year 2025 ICD-10-CM/PCS coding and updated risk adjustment in SAS QI, WinQI, and CloudQI.
• PSI 02, Death Rate in Low-Mortality Diagnosis-Related Groups, has been removed from the software and is expected to be formally retired in a future version.
• Indicator refinements.
• Year 2024 census-based population estimates for area-level indicator denominators. 

Detailed information about all changes in the software will be included in the Release Notes and Change Logs, available on the AHRQ Quality Indicators website.

Handoff Tool Helps Reduce Medical Errors and Adverse Events

A structured handoff tool called I-PASS (Illness Severity, Patient Summary, Action List, Situation Awareness, and Synthesis to Receiver) helps improve patient safety, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in BMJ Quality and Safety. The study, based on an evidence review from AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program and General Patient Safety Program, examined the effectiveness of various handoff tools, such as checklists and scripts for sharing information, on patient safety during shift changes within the same hospital unit. Researchers reviewed published studies from the last 10 years and focused primarily on the impact of two tools, IPASS and SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation). I-PASS had the strongest evidence of improving patient safety. SBAR may help improve patient safety, but the evidence is weaker.  Access the article.

Webinar Recording Now Available: Understanding CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure Requirements

Hospitals can earn points toward the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM) by meeting criteria across five domains, including Domain 3: Culture of Safety and Learning Health Systems. In a recent webinar, CMS and AHRQ experts explained that AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) Hospital Survey and shorter pulse surveys can help meet these requirements. Hospitals must attest “Yes” to all five Domain 3 statements—such as conducting validated safety culture surveys annually (or alternating between pulse and full surveys each year) and benchmarking patient safety metrics—to earn the point. During the Q&A, presenters clarified that surveys must include a patient safety culture component, hospitals can add supplemental questions, there is an option to use a Hospital SOPS (or other) pulse survey in alternating years, and attestation does not require data submission to AHRQ. Learn more and access the recording.

New Guide Helps Practices Support Adolescent Behavioral Health

Discover a new resource from the AHRQ Integration Academy designed to help pediatric and family medicine teams better support adolescents and their families. The latest topic brief outlines nine key components for implementing behavioral-developmental health screening and response in pediatric primary care. Grounded in trauma-informed and two-generation approaches, it offers actionable steps, real-world examples, and practical tools to build resilient, supportive care systems for youth ages 12–17. Learn how practices can foster safe, stable, nurturing environments that promote adolescent well-being. Read the full brief.

Register for Upcoming Webinars

• AHRQ Safety Program for HAI Prevention: CAUTI Informational Webinar:
  • September 12, 11:30 a.m.–12 p.m. ET.
  • October 3, 11:30 a.m.–12 p.m. ET.
  • October 28, 3:30–4 p.m. ET.
• September 16, 3:30–4:30 p.m. ET: AHRQ Quality Indicators v2025 Webinar.
• September 18, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. ET: Strengthening Partnerships with Patients and Families to Assess and Improve the Experience of Care.
• October 8, 2:30–4 p.m. ET: Prepping for the Future: Digital Solutions for Aging Populations.

AHRQ Stats: Expenditures for Heart Disease Treatment

Healthcare expenditures to treat heart disease for U.S. adults totaled $100 billion in 2022, with an average of $4,900 for each person treated. Most expenditures, 46.1 percent, were for hospital inpatient stays, and 20.5 percent were for prescribed medications. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #562, Healthcare Expenditures for Heart Disease among Adults Aged 18 and Older in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2022.)

New Research and Evidence

• Systematic Review (draft open for comment through September 18): Prehospital EMS Blood Transfusion and Fluid Interventions for Hemorrhagic Shock.
• Systematic Review (draft open for comment through September 29): Dietary Total Fat Intake and Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Intake and Child Growth and Development Outcomes.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Evaluating a train-the-trainer approach for implementing obstetric life support in diverse healthcare contexts throughout Arizona: a mixed methods protocol. Cunningham SD, Carandang RR, Wood LS, et al. BMC Health Serv Res 2025 May 15;25(1):707. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Frequency of antibiotic overtreatment and associated harms in patients presenting with suspected sepsis to the emergency department: A retrospective cohort study. Shappell CN, Yu T, Klompas M, et al. Clin Infect Dis 2025 Jul 18;80(6):1197-1207. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Effectiveness of bi-directional patient-provider communication tools aimed at changing patient medication behavior in the outpatient setting: a scoping review. Amenta E, Olmeda K, Collazo A, et al. Fam Pract.2025 Jun 4;42(4). Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Days alive out of health care: a novel measure of health status after congenital heart surgery. Crook S, Sanchez CM, Dragan K, et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 2025 Mar 4;85(8):851-62. Epub 2025 Feb 5. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Semi-automated pipeline to accelerate multi-site flowsheet alignment and concept mapping in electronic health records. Fan H, Rossetti SC, Thate J, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2025 Jul;32(7):1140-8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Does physician-hospital vertical integration signal care-coordination? Evidence from mover-stayer analysis of commercially insured enrollees. Encinosa W, Dor A. J Health Econ 2025 May;101:102997. Epub 2025 Mar 31. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related workflow changes on a clinically-integrated breastfeeding peer counselor program. Sattar F, Borders AEB, Keenan-Devlin LS. Matern Child Health J 2025 Feb;29(2):148-55. Epub 2024 Dec 19. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Relationship between nurse staffing during labor and cesarean birth rates in U.S. hospitals. Lyndon A, Simpson KR, Landstrom GL, et al. Nurs Outlook 2025 Mar-Apr;73(2):102346. Epub 2025 Jan 28. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

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