AHRQ seeks information on use of QIs from public, healthcare industry

Martina

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has published a Request for Information (RFI), which seeks information about the use of the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) by the general public and the health care industry for Quality Improvement purposes. The AHRQ QIs are standardized, evidence-based measures of health care quality that can be used with readily available hospital inpatient administrative data to measure and track clinical performance and outcomes.

AHRQ is conducting a study to: (1) document knowledge and evidence about the scientific acceptability of the AHRQ QIs for quality improvement; (2) document and synthesize information about the strengths and limitations of the AHRQ QIs for quality improvement; (3) identify areas of disagreement, if any, in the evidence; and (4) develop suggestions for refinement or improvement in the indicators, particularly those that make the AHRQ QIs more useful for quality improvement.

As part of this study, AHRQ has published a RFI in the Federal Register to obtain information from stakeholders who have not published their experiences using the AHRQ QIs or who wish to provide additional information beyond what they have published. This information will be used by AHRQ and an Expert Workgroup convened by AHRQ to arrive at recommendations about retaining, retiring, or modifying each of the AHRQ QIs to maximize their value to the health care industry and policymakers for improving the quality of patient care.

The list of AHRQ QIs is found at https://www.qualityindicators.ahrq.gov/. The RFI is found in the Federal Register at - 2018-03243. A Federal Register Notice extending the closing date for response to the RFI to March 16, 2018 is found at 2018-03964.