AHRQ: Patient safety improving, but slowly

According to a new study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), patient safety improved between 2000 and 2005. However, the improvement was modest, a mere 1 percent, according to the agency. The AHRQ's 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report, the agency's fifth-annual study looking at patient safety, focused on 41 core measures addressing care effectiveness, safety, timeliness and patient focus. Researchers with the agency found that while providers have been able to cut down on care variations to some degree, progress has not been consistent across the industry. This may be due, in part, to the fact that there's no one set of scientifically-derived measures that are universally accepted across the industry, the agency said.

To learn more about the agency's research:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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