Research Activities, July 2012: Feature Story: Podcast series discusses the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ Toolkit for Hospitals

Research Activities, July 2012: Feature Story: Podcast series discusses the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ Toolkit for Hospitals

Podcast series discusses the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ Toolkit for Hospitals

AHRQ has released a series of seven audio interviews focused on the use of quality improvement tools in the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ Toolkit for Hospitals. The toolkit is a free resource to guide hospitals through the process of using the AHRQ Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) and Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) to improve care. The first interview in this series features Donna Farley, adjunct senior health policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, speaking about how hospital teams can adapt and use the toolkit to support their quality improvement initiatives. You can download the toolkit at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qitoolkit/ (audio file and transcript are available). Future podcasts will address the following topics:

• Analyzing your IQI and PSI rates.
• Using the documentation and coding tool.
• Identifying your improvement priorities.
• Analyzing your barriers and strategy options.
• Implementing changes to improve performance on the IQI or PSI measures.
• Achieving sustainable improvements.

To access the slide presentations and an audio recording from an introductory Web conference about the toolkit, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qitoolkit/webinar0215/.