Introduction

Translating research into practice that

enhances quality of care in the Nation’s

hospitals continues to be a major effort

of the Agency for Healthcare Research

and Quality (AHRQ), the lead Federal

agency for research on health care

quality, costs, outcomes, and patient

safety. AHRQ and its predecessor

agencies have maintained a

longstanding commitment to

developing tools to help hospitals

examine performance, enhance

treatment effectiveness, and improve

the health care system to help reduce

error and improve patient safety.

Briefly described here are some of the

tools recently developed for hospitals

and other provider organizations from

AHRQ research.

Examining Performance

QualityTools Web site provides

practical, ready-to-use tools for

measuring and improving health care

quality. This online clearinghouse

allows users to search for tools that

target a disease/condition, audience,

tool category, or vulnerable population.

The QualityTools providers’ page

provides links to resources (including

Web sites, benchmarks, guidelines,

data, and measures) to help hospitals

and other provider organizations assess

and improve care delivery. Subscription

to a weekly “What’s New” service is

available. QualityTools is also home to

AHRQ’s National Healthcare Quality

Report and National Healthcare

Disparities Report. QualityTools can be

accessed at: 

www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov/

AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) can

help hospitals assess their safety and

quality of care using routinely

collected administrative data. Of

particular interest to hospital quality

assessment, AHRQ’s Inpatient Quality

Indicators and Patient Safety Indicators

include measures of inpatient mortality,

utilization, and volume for selected

conditions and procedures as well as

hospital- and area-level indicators for

complications that may indicate inhospital patient safety events. The QI

The mission of AHRQ is to improve the quality,

safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health

care by:

• Using evidence to improve health care.

• Improving health care outcomes through

research.

• Transforming research into practice.

Tools for Hospitals

and Health Care

Systems 

FACT SHEET

Advancing Excellence in Health Care • www.ahrq.gov

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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software can be used to help hospitals

identify quality concerns or potential

problem areas that might need further

investigation. (A third QI module—the

Prevention Quality Indicators—can be

used with hospital administrative data

to identify levels of potentially

preventable admissions for a variety of

conditions in order to target

interventions at the State, community,

or even ZIP Code level.) More

information on the AHRQ QIs

(including downloading instructions) is

available at: www.qualityindictors.

ahrq.gov/; users may sign up for the QI

Listserv® at: www.qualityindicators.

ahrq.gov/signup.htm Online query system allows hospitals

to compare their performance with

other States and the Nation. Webbased HCUPnet uses data from the

Healthcare Cost and Utilization

Project, a Federal-State-Industry

partnership between AHRQ and public

and private data organizations in over

35 participating States. An easy-to-use

online query system, its interactive

format gives hospitals access to national

and regional statistics on numbers of

procedures, diagnoses, length of stay,

costs, and charges. It also allows

hospitals to compare their performance

to national benchmarks using AHRQ’s

Prevention QIs and Patient Safety

Indicators. HCUPnet is available at:

http://hcup.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.asp New patient survey tool will enable

hospitals to uniformly measure and

publicly report patients’ perspectives

on their care. Jointly developed by

AHRQ and the Centers for Medicare

& Medicaid Services, the CAHPS® Hospital Survey (HCAHPS®) will help

address the need for a national standar

d

for collecting information on patient

experience with hospital care and

making valid comparisons across all

hospitals. Hospitals will voluntarily

begin using HCAHPS® in 2005 under

the auspices of the Hospital Quality

Alliance; the first full national

implementation of HCAHPS

® is

planned later in 2005. More

information on HCAHPS

® is available

at: www.ahrq.gov/qual/cahps/

hcahpfact.htm; users may sign up for

the HCAHPS

®Listserv® at:

www.ahrq.gov/qual/cahps/hcahplist.htm

Assessing Emergency

Preparedness

Hospitals can use new bioterrorism

readiness questionnaire to assess their

preparedness for responding to a

bioterrorist attack. Developed and

pilot tested in four hospitals under an

AHRQ contract, the Bioterrorism

Emergency Planning and Preparedness Questionnaire for Healthcare Facilities

is designed to help hospitals assess the

capability of their personnel and

systems to respond to a bioterrorism

incident. The 42-question survey can

be downloaded from the AHRQ Web

site at: www.ahrq.gov/about/cpcr/

bioterrtxt.htm

New computer staffing model can

help hospitals and health systems

plan antibiotic dispensing and

vaccination campaigns. Developed

with AHRQ support, the Bioterrorism

and Epidemic Outbreak Response Model is an interactive planning tool

designed to estimate the number of

staff needed to operate a mass

prophylaxis center given specific

population size, time frame, patient

flo

w, and staff limitations. This model

was provided to the American Hospital

Association (AHA) for distribution to

U.S. hospitals. The Microsoft

®

Excel

workbook may be accessed from the

AHA Disaster Readiness Web site at:

www.hospitalconnect.com/aha/

key_issues/disaster_readiness/resources/

vaccination.html
New AHRQ tool provides modulebased approach to evaluate hospital

disaster drills. Separate modules

enable hospitals to assess the readiness

of their command, decontamination,

triage, and treatment zones. Among

the aspects addressed are time points,

zone descriptions and operations,

personnel, communications,

information flow, security, victim flow

and tracking, personal protective

equipment and safety, supplies, rotation

of staff, and zone disruption. Modules

for pre-drill assessment and debriefing

and detailed user instructions are

included. Evaluation of Hospital

Disaster Drills: A Module-Based Approach is available at:

www.ahrq.gov/research/hospdrills/hosp

drill.htm

Selection matrix tool can help

hospitals locate and rank alternate

sites in the event of a public health

emergency. After a bioterrorist event or

other public health emergency,

hospitals may be overwhelmed by a

sudden influx of patients. The

Alternative Care Site Selection Matrix

Tool is designed to allow regional

planners to locate and rank potential

alternate sites—stadiums, schools,

recreation centers, motels, and other

venues—based on whether they have

adequate ventilation, plumbing, food

supply and kitchen facilities, and other

factors. The tool, developed under

AHRQ contract as part of the 

Rocky

Mountain Regional Care Model for Bioterrorist Events, is available at:

www.ahrq.gov/research/

altsites/alttool1.htm

For other bioterrorism planning and response tools from AHRQ, see:

www.ahrq.gov/browse/bioterbr.htm

Improving Organization

New AHRQ tool helps hospitals and

health care systems assess and

improve an organization’s culture of

patient safety. This survey tool can be

used to assess the safety culture of a

hospital as a whole, or for specific units

within hospitals, as well as to track

changes in patient safety culture over

time and evaluate the impact of patient

safety interventions. The survey can be

customized to reflect the needs of

individual hospitals. The Hospital

Survey on Patient Safety Culture, which

includes the survey tool and a detailed

user’s guide, can be found at:

www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospculture/

National Quality Measures

ClearinghouseTM (NQMC) assists

hospitals to select, use, and apply

clinically proven quality measures.

Designed as a one-stop, Web-based

shop for hospitals, health systems,

health plans, and others who may be

interested in quality measurement and

improvement, the NQMC has the

most current evidence-based quality

measures and measure sets available to

evaluate health care quality. Users can

search the NQMC for measures that

target a particular disease or condition,

treatment, age range, gender, vulnerable

population, setting of care, or

contributing organization. Visitors also

can compare attributes of two or mor

e

quality measures side by side to

determine which measures best suit

their needs. The NQMC can be

accessed without charge at:

www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/

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www.ahrq.gov

AHRQ Pub No. 05-P016

March 2005

Enhancing Care

Web-based clinical pharmacology

educational tool can help hospitals

prevent adverse events. This online

educational module, Preventable

Adverse Drug Reactions: A Focus on

Drug Interactions, was developed by

investigators at one of AHRQ’s Centers

for Education and Research on

Therapeutics in collaboration with the

Food and Drug Administration’s Center

for Drug Evaluation and Research. The

module consists of a set of slides

illustrating a sample case, extensive

literature references, and self-assessment

questions. The module is free and

publicly available at:

www.fda.gov/cder/drug/drugReactions/

default.htm

National Guideline ClearinghouseTM

(NGC) lets hospital staff locate and

compare clinical recommendations

online. The NGC is a Web-based

resource that contains guidelines

submitted by health care organizations,

associations, medical societies, and

Federal agencies. Updated weekly with

new content, the site provides an

accessible and comprehensive source of

clinical practice guidelines—in both

summary and full text (where available)

format—saving users hours of

researching to find similar information.

Free subscription to weekly “What’s

New” electronic notices is available.

Originally developed by AHRQ in

partnership with the American Medical

Association and the American

Association of Health Plans, the NCG

can be accessed without charge at:

www.guideline.gov/

For More Information

More information on AHRQ and its

programs and projects may be found on

the AHRQ Web site at: www.ahrq.gov/

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