title: Ensuring health care quality: an AHCPR perspective. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
abstract: This paper discusses the role of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) in identifying and solving problems within the health care industry. It reviews current AHCPR activities and details the results of the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey, the recent poll of how people in the United States make choices about health care. A discussion of present quality measurement tools, such as CONQUEST, a database of existing performance measures, includes an outline of plans for developing new measures of quality and outcomes. Also explored are ideas for improving quality measurements, potential problems and risks, and the public role in health services research.
authors.affiliation: Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Clancy
mesh_terms: D006076:Government; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States; D016270:United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality