National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Latest available findings on quality of and access to health care
Data
- Data Infographics
- Data Visualizations
- Data Tools
- Data Innovations
- All-Payer Claims Database
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
- Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
- AHRQ Quality Indicator Tools for Data Analytics
- State Snapshots
- United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK)
- Data Sources Available from AHRQ
Tools
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) offers practical, research-based tools and other resources to help a variety of health care organizations, providers, and others make care safer in all health care settings.
Action Planning Tool for the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture
This tool was designed for users of the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture and is intended for use after an organization administers one of the five culture surveys and analyzes the results. It provides step-by-step guidance to help survey users develop an action plan to improve patient safety culture.
Date Published: December 2015 Setting of Care: Hospital
AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions, 2nd edition
This toolkit provides evidence-based guidance to adult and pediatric health care providers practices to ensure that systems are in place to promote better understanding by patients. The toolkit contains 21 tools, appendices, sample forms, PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, and a Quick Start Guide.
Date Published: April 2010 Setting of Care: Ambulatory Care, Hospital, Long-term Care, Outpatient Surgery
AHRQ Safety Program for End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Facilities Toolkit
This toolkit helps dialysis center clinicians prevent healthcare-associated infections and make care safer by following clinical best practices, creating a culture of safety, using checklists and other audit tools, and engaging with patients and their families.
Date Published: April 2014 Setting of Care: Ambulatory Care, Long-term Care
Antibiotic Stewardship Toolkits
Three toolkits that help hospitals, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory practices apply the Four Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making to improve antibiotic use.
Date Published: October 2022 Setting of Care: Ambulatory Care, Long-term Care, Hospital
Calibrate Dx: A Resource To Improve Diagnostic Decisions
Self-evaluation tool for clinicians to improve their diagnostic decision making. This resource provides structured exercises and tools to help clinicians learn from reviewing their clinical practice. Anyone whose scope of practice includes medical diagnosis can use Calibrate Dx.
Date Published: October 2022 Setting of Care: Ambulatory Care
Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) Control and Prevention Toolkit
Leaders in infectious disease and infection control can use this toolkit to develop interventions to control carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). The toolkit is organized into six sections and can be used either in its entirety or by pulling out specific sections that meet an organization’s needs.
Date Published: March 2014 Setting of Care: Hospital
Communication and Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) Toolkit
The CANDOR toolkit contains eight modules that include PowerPoint slides with facilitator notes, tools, resources, and videos, to help health care institutions and practitioners respond when unexpected events cause a patient harm.
Date Published: April 2017 Setting of Care: Hospital
Community-Acquired Pneumonia Clinical Decision Support Implementation Toolkit
The Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Patient Safety Clinical Decision Support Implementation Toolkit helps clinicians and clinical informaticians in primary care and other ambulatory settings implement and adopt the community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) clinical decision support alert to identify the severity of a patient’s CAP and determine the appropriate site of care to manage it.
Date Published: January 2018 Setting of Care: Ambulatory Care
Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) Toolkit
Created for clinicians by clinicians, this toolkit includes training tools to make care safer by improving the foundation of how physicians, nurses, and other clinical team members work together and builds the capacity to address safety issues by combining clinical best practices and the science of safety. Additional AHRQ toolkits build on the CUSP model to address problems such as central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), infections associated with ventilators, surgical complications, and more.
Date Published: December 2012 Setting of Care: Hospital, Outpatient Surgery
Emergency Severity Index (ESI): A Triage Tool for Emergency Department Care
The ESI is a five-level emergency department triage algorithm that helps hospital emergency department staff rapidly identify patients in need of immediate attention and better identify patients who could safely and more efficiently be seen in a fast-track or urgent care center rather than the main emergency department.
Date Published: September 2012 Setting of Care: Hospital