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
Programs
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)'s programs offer practical information to help a variety of health care organizations, providers, and others make care safer in all health care settings.
Comparative Health System Performance (CHSP) Initiative
AHRQ created the Comparative Health System Performance Initiative to study how health care delivery systems promote evidence-based practices in delivering care. AHRQ’s goal is to understand the factors that affect health systems’ use of patient-centered outcomes research and to identify best practices in disseminating and using patient-centered outcomes research.
Delivery System Design
The health care system in the United States has been the subject of much debate as experts try to determine the best way to deliver high-quality care.
Effective Health Care Program
The Effective Health Care Program is powered by the Evidence-based Practice Centers Program, and improves the quality of healthcare by synthesizing and disseminating the best available evidence on the benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and healthcare services. This work helps healthcare professionals, patients, policymakers, healthcare systems, researchers and research funders make informed decisions about healthcare and research needs.
Evidence-based Practice Centers Program
The Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC) Program sponsors the development of evidence reviews to assist public- and private-sector organizations in their efforts to improve the quality of healthcare in the United States. These reviews examine the benefits and harms of medications, devices, and other healthcare services, and support the Effective Health Care Program, Technology Assessment Program, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The EPCs are located at universities, medical centers, and research institutions in the United States. The EPC Division at AHRQ sets the strategy and priorities for the EPC Program, and manages program operations, contracts, grants, and training.
Health Care Innovations Exchange
The Health Care Innovations Exchange was designed to speed the implementation of new and better ways of delivering health care. It offers busy health professionals and researchers the opportunity to share, learn about, and ultimately adopt evidence-based innovations and tools suitable for a range of health care settings and populations. Project funding for the Exchange ended in 2016.
Health Literacy
AHRQ's health literacy resources help health care professionals and delivery organizations make information easier to understand and systems easier to navigate.
Hospital Resources
AHRQ’s research-based resources for hospitals include toolkits, recommendations, and other resources to improve quality, reduce errors, and increase patient safety.
Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HACs)
AHRQ’s patient safety research formed the foundation of the methods, tools, and resources that many hospitals and other frontline clinicians use to reduce HACs, which are conditions that a patient develops while in the hospital being treated for something else. To reduce HACs and other adverse events in hospitals, frontline clinicians and others use many of the methods, tools, and resources AHRQ developed.
Hospitals & Health Systems Research
AHRQ offers toolkits, recommendations, and other resources to improve quality, reduce errors, and increase patient safety in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and primary care facilities
Long-term Care Resources
AHRQ offers toolkits, recommendations, and other resources for long-term care facilities to improve quality, reduce errors, and increase patient safety.