Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

Funding research to better understand how diagnostic errors happen and how to prevent them.

Network of Patient Safety Databases

The Network of Patient Safety Databases provides valuable tools to identify and track patient safety problems and trends.

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Work

Overview of AHRQ’s research programs, funding opportunities, and stories of impact from AHRQ’s patient safety investments.

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Preventing Infections

AHRQ funds work to help frontline providers prevent HAIs by improving how care is delivered to patients.

Learn About Patient Safety

Research-based tools to get your team on board and help them understand and use core concepts of patient safety.

As the lead federal agency for advancing patient safety, AHRQ invests in research and implementation projects that bridge the gap between research and the delivery of safer patient care. AHRQ's patient safety research summaries reflect the work of agency grantees and contractors. Organized by theme, the summaries provide brief descriptions of individual projects as well as research highlights.

AHRQ has developed a wealth of materials focused on a wide range of patient safety risks in specific healthcare settings: acute, hospital, labor and delivery units, long-term, ambulatory, and more.

• Hospital
• Hospital Labor and Delivery Units
• Emergency Department
• Long Term Care
• Ambulatory Care
• End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Clinics
• Pharmacy
• Multiple Settings

Quality improvement measurement tools and information, including AHRQ Quality Indicators Hospital Toolkit, ambulatory clinical performance measures, and TalkingQuality.

• Challenge and Potential for Assuring Quality Health Care for the 21st Century
• Child Health Care Quality Toolbox

• AHRQ-Funded Patient Safety Research Featured in Health Affairs
• Medical Liability
• National Academy of Medicine Reports
• National Action Plans
• Papers on Diagnostic Safety Topics
• PSNet
• Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation
• Advances in Patient Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches
• Advancing Patient Safety: A Decade of Evidence, Design, and Implementation
• Health Care Safety Hotline

AHRQ offers free tools to help prioritize concerns and maximize interactions between providers, patients, and families.

• Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety
• Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings

AHRQ is the lead Federal agency for patient safety research. Our work helps providers make care safer for patients.

• Connect with Patient Safety
• Learn about Patient Safety
• Patient Safety and Quality Areas
• Reducing Hospital-Acquired Conditions

• Patient Safety Awareness Week 2024
• Patient Safety Awareness Week 2023
• Patient Safety Awareness Week 2022
• Patient Safety Awareness Week 2021
• Patient Safety Awareness Week 2020
• Patient Safety Awareness Week 2019
• AHRQ Summit and Roundtable on Research Priorities for Patient Safety Improvement

Evidence-based products and tools provide resources, free continuing education events, and case studies on how our products and tools are being implemented.

Tips for preventing medical errors and promoting patient safety, measuring health care quality, consumer assessment of health plans, evaluation software, report tools, and case studies

• Home Health Care
• Improving Discharge
• Learning Lab Projects
• MEDNET Resource Guide
• Preventing Readmissions
• Quality & Safety Review System (QSRS)
• Simulation