The purpose of this paper is to discuss the initiatives that are taken by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in order to bring improvement in the existing health care system. The central goal of AHRQ is to take effective measures that can reduce the medical errors. Moreover, the paper has also emphasized on the effective strategies of AHRQ, which has greatly improved the quality of care (Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015).
AHRQ was developed to examine the reason for low health care that was provided to the people of USA. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that showed that millions of patients were facing underuse of services in hospitals conducted the research. The patients who come to the hospitals were not treated accurately which in results increases complications and cost for them. It was also discovered through the survey that around 18,000 people die every year in USA because they do not receive appropriate treatment and effective interventions (Gruessner, 2015). For example, a study of the heart attack patients revealed that just 21% of these patients were provided with the beta-blockers. It was also found that patients who did not receive beta-blocker had high mortality rate than of those patients who received beta-blocker.
The goal of AHRQ was to eliminate these variations in the services of health care through their effective test measures of quality. The research center also aims to identify the best ways that will be essential in the collection, comparison and communication of data on quality. The research conducted by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has concluded that the major health problem that is found in most of the children is Acute Otitis Media (AOM). It is analyzed that the average child in USA experiences 2.6 AOM episodes in the initial two years of his life. The study has proved that overuse of antibiotics in the case of AOM results in the emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens. Although research has shown that AOM can be recovered easily in 80 to 90 percent children without the use of any antibiotics. To spread awareness in parents to avoid the use of antibiotics for such treatments, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is evaluating parent education in order to change their expectation about universal antibiotic treatment that is carried for AOM (Monegain, 2015).
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a research, which successfully helped the emergency department to understand how medication-related errors could be reduced from clinical pharmacy services. The research also helped Banner Desert Medical Centre in Mesa, Arizona, to enlarge its emergency department pharmacy program. The dependency of Clinical pharmacist on pharmacy technicians has assisted them in the collection of patient’s medication history and has also helped in the improvement of those patients who are admitted through the emergency department (Mold, 2014).
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has also developed a strategy that will promote adherence to evidence-based guideline and also improve the quality of home health care nurses. With the assistance of evidence-based reminders in healthy home care, nurses will receive e-mails with the attachment of six condition-specific practices that will help the nurses while treating cancer or heart attack patients. Moreover, nurses with the augmented intervention will receive an email with the additional information from the experts.
AHRQ has provided millions of Americans with the best quality of health care. It has efficiently eliminated quality problems that were found in the wide range such as overuse or misuse of services. The studies and strategies provided by the AHRQ have promoted the efficiency of nurses and have enabled them to handle the difficult and tough situations with responsibility. Moreover, parent’s awareness to control the use of antibiotics in AOM has widely reduced the effect of multidrug in children.
References
Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality. (2015). Retrieved from http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/factsheets/errors-safety/improving-quality/improving-health-care-quality.html
Gruessner, V. (2015 9-June). Reducing Alert Fatigue Prevents Pharmacy Medication Errors. Retrieved from https://ehrintelligence.com/news/reducing-alert-fatigue-prevents-pharmacy-medication-errors/
Mold, J. W. (2014). AHRQ Updates on primary care research: Care coordination measures atlas and database. Annals of Family Medicines, 12 (5), 484.
Monegain, B. (2015 27-May). AHRQ aims to boost heart health. Retrieved from http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ahrq-aims-boost-heart-health
