AHRQuality Indicators™

AHRQuality Indicators™: MissionThe Quality Indicators are measures of health care quality that use readily available hospital inpatient administrative data. AHRQ develops Quality Indicators to provide health care decisionmakers with tools to assess their data.Visit the AHRQuality Indicators™ Web site. Harborview Medical Center in Seattle has improved patient safety across its facilities using AHRQ’s Quality Indicators (QIs)—standardized measures used to assess and monitor healthcare quality. A level 1 trauma center and safety net hospital, Harborview uses QIs to review adverse events and integrate new, safer processes into standard care. Specifically, the hospital makes use of Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs), a subset of QIs that target in-hospital safety issues—adverse events that were not present during patient admission. Information on cases identified through PSI reporting is shared with clinicians for review, and feedback and can be used to improve hospital practices. Harborview uses PSI modules across its medical, surgery, inpatient rehabilitation, and behavioral health areas. The latter two areas are primarily concerned with PSIs for pressure ulcers and falls, while the bulk of the PSI efforts are geared toward evaluating and addressing patient safety in Harborview’s medical/surgery areas. According to clinical quality analyst Ellen Robinson, P.T., who oversees Harborview’s QI efforts, “Because we're a trauma center, our highest level of PSI was for venous thromboembolism, or blood clots, so we started by looking at those.” Since adopting QIs in 2011, the hospital has reduced the percentage of potentially preventable blood clots after surgery. Using QIs has also improved Harborview’s rating in the Patient Safety and Adverse Events Composite (PSI 90). Learn more in a new AHRQ impact story. https://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/case-studies/202504.html