Agencies For Quality
ANSWERS
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead federal agency responsible for enhancing the quality and safety of America’s healthcare system. AHRQ creates the knowledge, tools, and data necessary to improve healthcare system performance and assist patients, healthcare professionals, and policymakers in making informed health decisions. AHRQ’s research, tools and training, data and measures, and close collaboration with US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies and other partners ensure that the evidence produced is understood and used to achieve the goals of better care, smarter healthcare spending, and healthier people.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 has made significant strides in transforming American health care, with an estimated 17.6 million more Americans receiving healthcare coverage in 2010 compared to 49.9 million uninsureds. Although the expansion of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage has received the most attention, the law’s quality and safety provisions may have an even greater long-term impact on the performance of the United States healthcare system. A December 2015 HHS report on hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) presents the most recent evidence.
According to the report, hospital patients had an estimated 2.1 million fewer HACs from 2010 to 2014 than they would have had if adverse event rates remained at the 2010 level of 145 HACs per 1,000 hospital discharges. Fewer HACs resulted in 87,000 fewer hospital deaths and a nearly $20 billion reduction in healthcare costs. These findings add to those reported in December 2014, which showed that from 2010 to 2013, 50,000 fewer patients died in hospitals, and $12 billion in healthcare costs were saved. Overall, the number of adverse events decreased by 17% between 2010 and 2014, falling from 145 per 1,000 hospital discharges to 121 per 1,000 hospital discharges.
Improving patient safety necessitates the participation of numerous stakeholders. Clinicians and hospital staff across the United States were critical to this progress. Through the HHS Partnership for Patients initiative, a public-private collaboration of healthcare providers, employers, patients, and federal and state governments, the Affordable Care Act also played a key role in these efforts. The initiative, which began in 2011, aimed to improve healthcare safety by lowering HAC rates and reducing preventable complications that can lead to hospital readmissions. Changes in Medicare payment further fueled progress, capturing the attention of hospital executives. For example, the Affordable Care Act reduced Medicare payments to 25% of hospitals with HAC rates in the highest quartile. To put HHS’s policy goals of better care, smarter spending, and healthier people into action, strong, diverse public-private partnerships, including frontline clinicians, institutions, and patients and families, are required. These efforts include hospital engagement networks, quality improvement organizations, and numerous other public and private partners, in addition to the Partnership for Patients.
Agencies For Quality
QUESTION
Agencies For Quality
Explore one of the agencies for quality improvement listed in this module’s lecture. Write a one-page summary of what the agency does, who it affects, and how it is utilized.