AHRQ’s Updated MONAHRQ® Software Offers Organizations New Features To Provide Health Care Quality Information to Consumers

AHRQ has released an updated version of its free MONAHRQ® software, which enables hospitals, nursing homes, doctors, health plans and other organizations to generate consumer websites that offer a wide range of data on health care quality. A public health department, for example, may use MONAHRQ 7 to report hospital discharge data by county. As another example, hospitals can use MONAHRQ 7 to identify areas to improve, highlight top performers and use performance information in contract negotiations. The updated MONAHRQ 7 software lets users report data from AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey on nursing homes and medical practices, as well as display information via more than 10 infographic templates depicting hospital and nursing home data on quality of care. MONAHRQ 7 also lets users show cost and quality data for coronary artery bypass grafting. Any organization can use MONAHRQ, either with inpatient and emergency department data it already has or by importing publicly available data such as Hospital Compare, Nursing Home Compare and Physician Compare from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. State agencies and other reporting organizations in 16 states already use MONAHRQ to enable public reporting of health care quality. Download MONAHRQ 7.

What's New?

2016

July 12 - Apr 1—MONAHRQ® 7 is available for download. View updatedRelease Notes 7 [PDF File – 422.17 KB] for new measures, data refreshes and features in this build. Visit the Consumer version demo site here. (Note: demo site displays simulated data). Select for the Professional version demo site.

May 27—Apply MONAHRQ 6.0 build 2 patch to upgrade the existing software you are operating. This patch will add capabilities for MONAHRQ 6.0 build 2 to import the latest CMS Hospital Compare Database and Nursing Home Compare Database. Download thepatch or learn more here.

2015

Nov 19—An update to MONAHRQ® 6.0 Build #2 is available. Use it to import larger IP and ED datasets and the latest data from CMS Hospital Compare, update customized physician data, and include in your Web site a new consumer-friendly video on the value of quality.

Previous updates are located on theArchives page.

MONAHRQ® Software

MONAHRQ® 7 (July 2016)

AHRQ is excited to announce the release of MONAHRQ 7, which builds on version 6’s ability to produce a Web site specifically for use by consumers. New reports are available for reporting Nursing Home and Clinician and Group CAHPS data and HEDIS measures. Based on feedback from MONAHRQ Host Users, new content management capabilities have been developed to allow further customization of Web site content.

MONAHRQ® 7 is a new version that replaces all previous versions of MONAHRQ®.

The MONAHRQ® Host User Guide, Release Notes, and other helpful documentation can be found on the Resources page. It is recommended users save and review copies of these useful resources prior to installing MONAHRQ.

To Install MONAHRQ® complete the following steps:

Step 1
Install Microsoft.NET 4.5 Framework if it is not currently installed. Unlike previous versions of the Microsoft.NET Framework, this version can be used on both 32- or 64-bit systems.

Microsoft.NET 4.5 Framework (982 KB)

Step 2
Step 2 Install Microsoft SQL Server R2 2008 Express or above if it is not currently installed and you do not have access to a networked SQL database server. Save and run the correct version based on your system (32 or 64 bit).

32-bit Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (SQLEXPRWT_x86_ENU.exe, 241 MB)
64-bit Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (sqlexprw_x64_ENU.exe, 253 MB)

Step 3
Step 3 Install 64 bit MONAHRQ® 7. After MONAHRQ® 7 has installed, save and run the file.

MONAHRQ® 7

If you are running a 32 bit windows operating system, select to download a 32-bit version of MONAHRQ 7 (Zipped .exe file, 204 MB).

Please note you will not be required to uninstall previous versions of the MONAHRQ software. If you are new to MONAHRQ 6.0 and higher, you will be prompted to complete the initial installation process as a first time Host User. After your first installation of MONAHRQ 5.0 build 2 or higher, you will be prompted to upgrade to the latest version in future installation processes.

If you are using MONAHRQ 4.1 or lower, you will not be required to uninstall the MONAHRQ software. To proceed with installing the MONAHRQ 6.0 Build 2 software, download the installer from this page and proceed with completing the steps defined by the installer.

Step 4 (Optional)
MONAHRQ® 7 can import and report sets of pre-calculated quality measures.

AHRQ Quality Indicators™ (QI): Use the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ software for SAS or Windows to calculate the AHRQ QI™ directly from inpatient discharge data. If you use the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ software for SAS, reformat the measure results for MONAHRQ® using these SAS formatting utilities. If you have used the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ software for Windows, no additional formatting is needed.

CMS Hospital Compare measures: Visit the Data page to download CMS Hospital Compare quality measures that are formatted to use with MONAHRQ®. Available beginning with the MONAHRQ 6.0 release, Users can download and import the Hospital Compare database into MONAHRQ directly from the Medicare.gov Web site. Database versions prior to January 2015 must be downloaded from the Data page and not from the Hospital Compare Web site. Updated files are available (approximately) on a quarterly basis. If you would like an older version of the Hospital Compare data, please visit the Archives page or contact MONAHRQ® Technical Support. reference 6.0 and dates of data available may be old.

CMS Nursing Home Compare measures: Visit the Data page to download CMS Nursing Home Compare quality measures that are formatted to use with MONAHRQ®. Available beginning with the MONAHRQ 6.0 release, Users can download and import the Nursing Home Compare database directly into MONAHRQ from the Medicare.gov Web site. Updated files are available (approximately) on a quarterly basis.

Medicare Provider Charge data: Visit the Data page to download the Medicare Provider Charge data file that is compatible with MONAHRQ® 7. Updated files are available on an annual basis. The most recent file with a collection year for the full year of 2012 can be used.

Visit the Resources page for detailed information on MONAHRQ® installation.

For earlier software versions go to the MONAHRQ® Archives page.

MONAHRQ® 6.0 Build 2 Software Patch

The software patch is a piece of software designed to update MONAHRQ when it is already installed on your computer. After the patch is applied, MONAHRQ will be able to import the latest CMS Hospital Compare Database andNursing Home Compare Database. Both these databases can be downloaded directly from their respective Web sites and directly imported into MONAHRQ.

Patch Release May 2016

This release includes:

The support for CMS Hospital Compare databases for:
- December 2015 database release (database can be downloaded from CMS Web site, Hospital Compare data archive page.)
- May 2016 (database can be downloaded from CMS Web site, Hospital Compare datasets page. This release refreshes measure data.)
The support for CMS Nursing Home Compare databases for:
- April 2016 database release (database can be downloaded from CMS Web site, Nursing Home Compare data archive page)
- May 2016 database release (database can be downloaded from CMS Web site, Nursing Home Comparedatasets page)

How to apply the patch

Step 1

Download MONAHRQ 6.0 build 2 software patch (.exe file – 372 KB) and save the file on your computer or network.

Step 2

Open or double-click the .exe file to apply the patch. After the patch finishes running, click “Done” to exit. If you want to start MONAHRQ once the patch is installed, click “Ok.” Although you do not need to close MONAHRQ to apply the patch, it is recommended that you do so before installing the patch.

Page last reviewed July 2016

Internet Citation: MONAHRQ® Software. Content last updated July 2016. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/monahrq/software/index.html