The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research) is a part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services

United States Department of Health and Human Services

The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a Cabinet department of the United States government with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America"...

, which supports research designed to improve the outcomes and quality of health care

Health care

Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

, reduce its costs, address patient safety and medical errors, and broaden access to effective services. It sponsors, conducts, and disseminates research to help people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services. It also acts as the regulator for Patient Safety Organizations that are certified under the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 : , 42 U.S.C. , established a system of patient safety organizations and a national patient safety database...

. The agency performs Health Outcomes Research.

AHRQ's mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare for Americans. The agency is led by director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D..

Quality indicators

The agency defines Quality Indicators (QIs) to measure health care quality based upon readily available hospital inpatient administrative data. These indicators consist of four modules measuring various aspects of quality:

1. Prevention quality indicator (PQI) identify hospital admissions that evidence suggests could have been avoided, at least in part, through high-quality outpatient care.
2. In-patient quality indicator (IQI) reflect quality of care inside hospitals including inpatient mortality
   Death
   Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
   
    for medical conditions and surgical procedures.
3. Patient safety indicators (PSI) also reflect quality of care inside hospitals, but focus on potentially avoidable complications
   Complication (medicine)
   Complication, in medicine, is an unfavorable evolution of a disease, a health condition or a medical treatment. The disease can become worse in its severity or show a higher number of signs, symptoms or new pathological changes, become widespread throughout the body or affect other organ systems. A...
   
    and iatrogenic events.
4. Pediatric quality indicator include the above indicators related to the pediatric
   Pediatrics
   Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
   
    population.

In 2004, AHRQ expanded its support of health information technology initiatives by creating a National Resource Center for Health Information Technology and awarding more than $130 million in grants and contracts for various health information technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 projects. The aim of the awards and resource center is to enhance the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of health care through the use of technology.

Dad to the Doc

AHRQ and the Ad Council

Ad Council

The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations and agencies of the United States government....

 produce this Healthy Men related campaign to raise awareness of the importance of men learning the preventive medical tests they regularly need.

Healthcare 411

AHRQ produces an audio newscast series to help keep people informed of the agency's latest health care research findings, news, and information. The audio programs feature current news and information from the Agency. AHRQ's mission is to improve the quality, safety, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. They are the lead federal government agency in the effort to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors.

Politics

The agency originally began as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and was tasked with producing guidelines. However, it became controversial when it produced several guidelines which would reduce lucrative medical drugs and procedures. This included concern from ophthalmologists on a cataract guideline and concern by the pharmaceutical industry over a reduction in the use of new high-margin drugs. When the agency produced a guideline which concluded that back pain surgery was unnecessary and potentially harmful, a lobbying campaign aided by Congressmen whose backs had been operated on changed the name of the agency and "wound down" the guidelines program.

See also

• Patient safety
  Patient safety
  Patient safety is a new healthcare discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often leads to adverse healthcare events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported...
  
  
• Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act
  Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act
  The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 : , 42 U.S.C. , established a system of patient safety organizations and a national patient safety database...
  
  
• Perioperative mortality
  Perioperative mortality
  Perioperative mortality is mortality in relation to surgery, often defined as death within two weeks of a surgical procedure. An important consideration in the decision to perform any surgical procedure is to weigh the benefits against the risks...
  
  
• Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)
  Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP)
  The Surgical Care Improvement Project partnership is a multi-year national campaign, which began in August 2005 to substantially reduce surgical mortality and morbidity through collaborative efforts.-A Partnership for Better Surgical Care:...
  
  
• U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
  U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
  The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is "an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services." The task force, a panel of primary care physicians and...
  
  
• Surgical Outcomes Analysis and Research
  Surgical Outcomes Analysis and Research
  Surgical Outcomes Analysis & Research, SOAR, is a research laboratory of the Department of Surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School with expertise in outcomes research. SOAR investigates surgical diseases and perioperative outcomes. The group focuses on pancreatic cancer as well...
  
  

External links

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Web site
• Agency For Healthcare Research And Quality Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed
• AHRQ's National Resource Center for Health IT
• HEALTHCARE 411, AHRQ's weekly Healthcare Podcast series
• Effective Health Care Program - Information about therapies and comparative effectiveness research
• AHRQ's Health Care Innovations Exchange Web site
• Dad to the Doc