Government toolkit helps patient safety

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. health officials have devised a free toolkit designed to guide hospitals to improve quality and patient safety.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released Tuesday the toolkit designed to guide hospitals through the process of using the AHRQ Inpatient Quality Indicators and Patient Safety Indicators to improve patient care.

The AHRQ Quality Indicators Toolkit for Hospitals is designed and tested to meet the needs of a variety of hospital-based users, including senior leaders, quality staff and multi-stakeholder improvement teams.

AHRQ developed these research-based tools during a two-year contract with the Rand Corp.

The toolkit includes an introduction and road map to help users identify the resources best suited to their specific needs at any given point in the improvement process including:

-- Determining readiness to change.

-- Applying quality improvement to hospital data.

-- Identifying priorities for quality improvement.

-- Implementing improvements.

-- Monitoring progress for sustainable improvements.

-- Analyzing return on investment.

-- Using other resources.

The toolkit can be downloaded at: www.ahrq.gov/qual/qitoolkit.

Officials said the developers and an expert at a hospital that tested the toolkit are offering a free AHRQ-sponsored Webinar Feb. 15.