Healthcare Quality News

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality seeks hospitals to participate in the second phase of a pilot study to validate the agency’s patient safety indicators. The phase II study, which will run from May through September, will focus on five of the indicators. The validation pilot is designed to establish the feasibility of a collaborative initiative to gather evidence on the scientific acceptability of the AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSI) in an effort to consolidate the evidence base of the AHRQ PSI, to improve guidance on the interpretation and use of AHRQ PSI data, and to evaluate potential refinements to the AHRQ PSI specifications.

Phase II of the Validation Pilot will focus primarily on these AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators:

• Foreign body left in during procedure

• Postoperative Hemorrhage or Hematoma

• Postoperative Respiratory Failure

• Postoperative Physiologic and Metabolic Derangement

• Postoperative Wound Dehiscence

For more information, see the AHRQ notice.

(SOURCE: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, http://ahrq.gov, accessed April 24, 2009; AHA News Now, http://ahanews.com, April 23, 2009)