Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Quality Indicators (HCUP QIs)
What are Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Quality Indicators (HCUP QIs)?
HCUP QIs are measures of health care quality used by the HCUP, a family of software tools, databases, and related projects that enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, including quality and cost of health services, access to health care programs, medical practice patterns, and treatment outcomes at the local, state, and national market levels.
Using hospital inpatient administrative data, HCUP QIs can identify areas needing further investigation, highlight potential quality concerns, and track progress over time.
There are four modules of HCUP QIs:
- Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs)
- Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs)
- Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs)
- Pediatric Quality Indicators (PDIs)
All QIs are analyzed using free software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which is designed to be used with HCUP.
Why are HCUP QIs important?
HCUP QIs are one element of HCUP data, comprising the most extensive collection of longitudinal hospital care data across the United States. The HCUP QIs help provide information on the quality and safety of patient care using administrative data at individual hospitals, which then provides information regarding healthcare use, outcomes, and access.