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Practice Improvement

AHRQ develops, tests and shares resources and strategies to assist health systems and clinicians deliver high-quality, safe, high-value healthcare. These evidence-based tools, toolkits, and training resources can help clinicians address challenging changes in medical practice and deliver the best possible patient care. Examples are below.

Improving Quality 

ToolsToolkitTraining
  • Prevention Task Force
    Application to help primary care clinicians identify clinical preventive services that are appropriate for their patients.
  • Emergency Severity Index triage tool
    Emergency department triage algorithm that provides clinically relevant stratification of patients into five groups from most to least urgent on the basis of acuity and resource needs.

Improving Safety 

ToolsToolkitTraining
  • QuestionBuilder App
    App to help patients and caregivers prepare for medical appointments and maximize visit time.
  • CUSP
    Method that helps clinical teams make care safer by combining improved teamwork, clinical best practices, and the science of safety.
  • On-Time Pressure Ulcer Prevention
    Tools to assist nursing homes that have electronic medical record systems to prevent adverse events.
  • TeamSTEPPS
    Teamwork tools that improve communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals.

Improving Value 

ToolsToolkitTraining
 

 

Our Patient Safety and Quality Improvement site and our National Center for Excellence for Primary Care Research have additional tools, toolkits, and resources.

Read more about some of AHRQ’s major practice improvement initiatives.

Page last reviewed June 2025
Page originally created August 2019

Internet Citation: Practice Improvement. Content last reviewed June 2025. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
https://www.ahrq.gov/practiceimprovement/index.html

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