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Briefing Highlights AHRQ Research into Health Care Quality On September 20, 2002, AcademyHealth and the Friends of AHRQ held a briefing titled Saving Lives and Improving Health Care Quality: AHRQ Research at Work. The purpose of the briefing was to make Congressional staff aware of the important research the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) undertakes. Mark Chassin, MD, demonstrated the problems of overuse, underuse and misuse of the system. Chassin, professor and chairman of the Department of Health Policy at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine stated that at least 20 percent of health care is overuse. Overuse is widespread from the simplest to the most complex services. Overuse is costly and harmful by exposing patients to unnecessary risks. Underuse is also prevalent in the system, especially in areas such as coronary care, breast cancer care, prenatal care, and immunizations. According to Dr. Chassin providers do not always use the best evidence-based practices. "We don't do what we know works," Chassin said. According to Dr. Chassin, medication injuries occur in 1.8 percent of adult hospital stays. This means that at a 700-bed hospital, 530 patients will be injured yearly. 106 of these injuries will be life-threatening and 230 will be serious. Each injury adds $4,685 in costs for a total yearly cost of $2,483,050. Carolyn Clancy, MD, illustrated the value and breadth of AHRQ research on quality using the example of a Congressional staffer who moved to Washington. Dr. Clancy, Acting Director of AHRQ, showed that the new staffer could choose a health plan using the AHRQ-funded "Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey." When she goes to the doctor for the first time, the doctor can electronically call up guidelines suggesting what tests are appropriate for someone of the staffer's age and health status and he can check for any possible drug interactions on his Palm Pilot, again thanks to AHRQ. "Purchasers - public and private - desperately need health services research and evidence to support their decision-making and concentrate on quality and value," said General Motors' Bruce Bradley. With its health care costs at $4.6 billion yearly and 1.2 million covered lives, General Motors is the largest private supplier of health care in the country. Mr. Bradley's PowerPoint slides are available at www.chsr.org/xxx Unveiling a "Cost of Poor Quality Clock", Kip Piper, director of the National Health Care Purchasing Institute, estimated the current economic cost of poor health care quality as of noon on September 25 to be $485,368,150,000, the number of preventable deaths at 215,719, and the number of preventable injuries at 1,078,596. These estimates are based on findings from RAND, CDC, the Mt. Sinai Medical School, the Institute of Medicine and the Juran Institute. Powerpoint Slides: |
