From the Guidelines
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) employs several national quality levers to improve healthcare outcomes across the United States, including evidence-based practice centers, quality indicators, and patient safety tools, as recommended by the American Heart Association's expert panel on disease management 1. These levers are designed to pursue safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable health care, and to continually reduce the burden of conditions for the people of the United States. Some of the key quality levers used by AHRQ include:
- Evidence-based practice centers that synthesize research to inform clinical decisions
- Development and implementation of quality indicators to measure healthcare performance
- Creation of patient safety tools and resources
- Data collection systems like the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to track healthcare utilization, costs, and quality
- Research grants focused on quality improvement
- Support for the implementation of health information technology
- Promotion of patient engagement through initiatives like the Questions Are the Answer campaign These quality levers work together to create a comprehensive approach to healthcare improvement by providing healthcare organizations with the necessary tools, data, and evidence to enhance patient care, reduce medical errors, and increase efficiency in healthcare delivery systems nationwide, as mandated by the AHRQ's annual report on health care disparities in the United States 1.
From the Research
AHRW National Quality Levers
There are no direct research papers to assist in answering this question about AHRW national quality levers. However, the provided studies discuss strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections, which can be related to quality levers in healthcare.
- Key strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections include:
- Hand hygiene: It is still the primary strategy used around the world to prevent HCAIs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
- Antibiotic stewardship: It has a crucial role in reducing the impact of HCAIs through conserving currently available antimicrobials 2.
- Cleaning and maintaining a safe hospital environment: It is part of a bundle of approaches used to stop the transmission of contagious and infectious microorganisms, including multidrug-resistant microbes 2.
- Routine educational interventions for health care professionals: They can help change their hand-washing practices to prevent the spread of infection 3.
- Using alcohol-based hand rubs: They are the preferred method of hand hygiene in most clinical scenarios, are more effective and better tolerated than handwashing, and their use has facilitated improved adherence rates 5, 6.
Hand Hygiene Compliance
- The hands of healthcare workers are known to be a primary source of transmission of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) 4.
- There is no consensus on the optimal hand hygiene compliance (HHC) rate for healthcare workers 4.
- Lower HAI incidence rates seem to be achieved with HHC rates of approximately 60% 4.
- Very high HHC rates are difficult to reach, and there is a need for high-quality evidence to support the implementation of specified targets for HHC rates 4.