Get to know the AHRQ Quality Indicators
Bringing excellence to healthcare decision making, quality improvement, and research
Quality Indicators (QIs) are st andardized, 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.
- Highlight potential quality improvement areas
- Track changes over time
- Identify areas for further study
Put the Quality Indicators to work for your organization
News you can use
Indicator Changes
May 23, 2019 - AHRQ announces the retirement of 21 indicators in v2019: PQI, IQI, PSI and PDI Indicators
December 15, 2017 - Release of AHRQ QI Beta software for v7.0.1 SAS QI and WinQI Software.
September 22, 2017 - Release of AHRQ QI Beta software for v7.0 SAS QI and WinQI Software for organizations to apply the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) to their own data to assist quality improvement efforts in acute care hospital settings.
September 22, 2017 - AHRQ announces the retirement of indicators in v7.0: IQ Area Level, IQI Hospital Level, and PSI Area Level Hospital indicators.
August 22, 2017 - Release of updated AHRQ PDI software for v6.0.2 ICD-9-CM SAS QI and v6.0.2 WinQI for organizations to apply the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) to their own data to assist quality improvement efforts in acute care hospital settings.
Read MoreSoftware Releases
August 20, 2018 – Minor release of WinQI v2018.0.1 ICD-10-CM/PCS (non-risk adjusted) software. Click here -New!
July 26, 2018 – Release of AHRQ QI Population File update patch for software version v7.0 and prior versions. -New!
June 20, 2018 – Release of AHRQ QI SAS QI and WinQI v2018 ICD-10-CM/PCS (non-risk adjusted) software.
May 16, 2018 – QI Update: This update concerns all versions of Area-level AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs) beginning with v4.4 Click here for details
Read MoreOthers
June 4, 2018 – Give us your input on the AHRQ Quality Indicators (QIs)!
March 2, 2018 - Opportunity for Public Comment on Scientific Acceptability of AHRQ QIs for Quality Improvement efforts. Click here for details
September 22, 2017 - Release of Frequently Asked Questions document related to the v7.0 ICD-10-CM/PCS software is available here.
May 1, 2017 – New FAQ related to PSI 04.
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Explore The Quality Indicators
Prevention Quality Indicators (PQI)
The PQIs are area-level Indicators that calculate admissions that might have been avoided through access to high-quality outpatient care and are a key tool for community health needs assessments.
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Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQI)
The IQIs include mortality indicators, utilization indicators, and volume indicators for key procedures to help hospitals identify potential problem areas that might need further study, as well as for quality improvement and trending initiatives.
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Patient Safety Indicators (PSI)
The PSIs reflect potentially avoidable safety events that represent opportunities for improvement in the delivery of care.
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Pediatric Quality Indicators (PDI)
The PDIs are specifically tailored to reflect the special characteristics of the pediatric population, including neonates, and can be used to identify potential quality and patient safety issues specific to the pediatric inpatient population.
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AHRQ QIs In Action
Missouri Hospital Association launched a public reporting website that uses a range of AHRQ QIs to support greater statewide transparency on hospital quality and cost. Initially a voluntary effort, the state legislature now mandates that all Missouri hospitals report pricing data for the 100 most common Diagnostic-Related Groups.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) achieved a 28 percent improvement in performance on AHRQ’s Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs), largely as a result of improved collaboration across departments and increased attention to documentation.
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UPMC reduced PSI 15 from a rate of 8.26 per 1,000 patient discharges in FY 2010 to 1.56 per 1,000 patients in FY 2016.
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