AHRQ
specializes in Advancing Excellence in Health Care.
Mission
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. The Effective Health Care Program of AHRQ works with researchers, research centers, and academic organizations to produce CER and translate findings into useful formats for a variety of audiences, including patients and clinicians. Comments from anyone outside of AHRQ do not imply an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ, or any other Federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
In 1999, an Institute of Medicine report, “To Err Is Human,” documented serious patient safety problems in our health care system. In the intervening years, AHRQ has led the Nation in responding to those issues and improving the safety of health care. Using AHRQ’s research and how-to tools, the U.S. health care system prevented 1.3 million errors, saved 50,000 lives, and avoided $12 billion in wasteful spending from 2010– 2013. But, even with these successes, safety
