Get to know the AHRQ Quality Indicators
Bringing excellence to healthcare decision making, quality improvement, and research
Quality Indicators (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.
- 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
September 22, 2017 - AHRQ announces the retirement of indicators in v7.0: IQ Area Level, IQI Hospital Level, and PSI Area Level Hospital indicators. -New!
November 9, 2016 - Patient Safety and Adverse Events Composite "modified version" of PSI 90 for v6.0 ICD-9-CM (FY2016) Fact Sheet Published.
May 1, 2017 - New FAQ related to PSI 04. -New!
November 9, 2016 - Patient Safety and Adverse Events Composite "modified version" of PSI 90 for v6.0 ICD-9-CM (FY2016) Fact Sheet Published.
Read MoreSoftware Releases
September 22, 2017 - Release of AHRQ QI Beta software for v7.0 SAS QI and WinQI Software. -New!
August 22, 2017 - Release of updated AHRQ PDI software for SAS QI v6.0.2 and WinQI v6.0.2 ICD-9-CM.
July 18, 2017 - Release of updated AHRQ PSI software for SAS QI v6.0.2 and WinQI v6.0.2 ICD-9-CM.
May 1, 2017 - Release of updated AHRQ PQI software for SAS QI v6.0.1 and WinQI v6.0.2 ICD-9-CM.
March 22, 2017 - Release of March 2017 AHRQ IQI software for SAS QI and WinQI v6.0 ICD-9-CM.
Read MoreOthers
September 22, 2017 - Release of Frequently Asked Questions document related to the v7.0 ICD-10-CM/PCS software is available here.
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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
Using AHRQ QI software Yale New Haven Health Systems reduced discharge costs by 5% annually.
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Essentia Health-Fargo reduced PSI 15 from a rate of 1.2 events per 1000 eligible procedures in 2013 to 0.07 in the first half of 2015.
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