Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality

Organization (Website) Origin: Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (PSQH) (https://www.psqh.com)

Topic Brief:
If you or anyone at your hospital use the National Guidelines Clearinghouse or National Quality Measures Clearinghouse operated under the auspices of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), download the information you need soon.
Both online clearinghouses will go dark after July 16 as federal funding runs out. Neither site is accepting new guidelines or quality measure sets in anticipation of shutting the databases down.

Announcements on each website note that that AHRQ has received "expressions of interest from stakeholders" that want to takeover maintenance of the databases, but AHRQ officials have declined to identify who those stakeholders are for now.

The clearinghouses were set up more than two decades ago as central sites to help hospitals, clinicians and others in health care find evidence-based information on which to set policy, create clinical treatment plans and objectively measure quality outcomes.

The guidelines and measures are submitted by various professional or academic health organization and must meet detailed criteria to be included in each database. As guidelines or measures are updated or become outdated, the information is removed.

AHRQ evaluating options
"AHRQ recognizes the importance of this resource and is evaluating potential options, including the participation of stakeholders who may wish to operate the Clearinghouse in the future," stated Alison Hunt, MPH, with AHRQ's Office of Communications, Media Division…. [Read complete article at link below]

URL: (link to PSQH article)

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Lezlee Koch
ASCLS Patient Safety

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ECRI to take over critical online resource of evidence-based guidelines (Hospital Safety Insider, July 19, 2018)

On Monday, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as it had previously announced it would do, shut down its operation of the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC). But, just a day later, ECRI Institute announced it will take over sponsorship of the clearinghouse sometime this fall.

AHRQ shut down both the NGC and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse when federal funding to operate the two critical online databases ran out. For more than two decades, hospitals, clinicians, and others in healthcare have used the two clearinghouses to find vetted, evidence-based information on which to set policy, create clinical treatment plans, and objectively measure quality outcomes.

ECRI Institute, a nonprofit patient safety organization in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has worked for the federal government since NGC was established to develop and maintain the guidelines database. And after the funding was cut, ECRI worked behind the scenes to address concerns in the healthcare industry about the loss of such a critical resource.

ECRI announced Tuesday that it was ready to launch what it called an interim website this fall to allow continued access to the NGC information.
For complete article: http://www.hcpro.com/SAF-331535-874/ECRI-to-take-over-critical-online-resource-of-evidencebased-guidelines.html?utm_source=silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180719_HCPro_Hospital_Safety_Center_Insider%20(1)&spMailingID=13902123&spUserID=MjQ4OTc2NzA5MjQ3S0&spJobID=1441608663&spReportId=MTQ0MTYwODY2MwS2

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Lezlee Koch
ASCLS Patient Safety Committee

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Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2018 14:05
From: Lezlee Koch
Subject: Advocate Excellence – National Guidelines, Quality Measures Clearinghouses Shutting Down

Organization (Website) Origin: Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (PSQH) (https://www.psqh.com)

Topic Brief:
If you or anyone at your hospital use the National Guidelines Clearinghouse or National Quality Measures Clearinghouse operated under the auspices of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), download the information you need soon.
Both online clearinghouses will go dark after July 16 as federal funding runs out. Neither site is accepting new guidelines or quality measure sets in anticipation of shutting the databases down.

Announcements on each website note that that AHRQ has received "expressions of interest from stakeholders" that want to takeover maintenance of the databases, but AHRQ officials have declined to identify who those stakeholders are for now.

The clearinghouses were set up more than two decades ago as central sites to help hospitals, clinicians and others in health care find evidence-based information on which to set policy, create clinical treatment plans and objectively measure quality outcomes.

The guidelines and measures are submitted by various professional or academic health organization and must meet detailed criteria to be included in each database. As guidelines or measures are updated or become outdated, the information is removed.

AHRQ evaluating options
"AHRQ recognizes the importance of this resource and is evaluating potential options, including the participation of stakeholders who may wish to operate the Clearinghouse in the future," stated Alison Hunt, MPH, with AHRQ's Office of Communications, Media Division…. [Read complete article at link below]

URL: (link to PSQH article)

------------------------------
Lezlee Koch
ASCLS Patient Safety

------------------------------

Our facility's medical librarians have been notified that the new access will be subscription based but have not been told how much the subscription will be. Their concern is that libraries are already having to cut back on subscriptions due to their ever increasing costs therefore adding another subscription would require cutting back on other resources or be cost prohibitive altogether. 

Anxiously awaiting to see how this plays out ...


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Brandy Gunsolus
Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science
Augusta University Medical Center
Augusta GA
(318) 990-1136
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-20-2018 09:39
From: Lezlee Koch
Subject: Advocate Excellence – National Guidelines, Quality Measures Clearinghouses Shutting Down

ECRI to take over critical online resource of evidence-based guidelines (Hospital Safety Insider, July 19, 2018)

On Monday, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as it had previously announced it would do, shut down its operation of the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC). But, just a day later, ECRI Institute announced it will take over sponsorship of the clearinghouse sometime this fall.

AHRQ shut down both the NGC and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse when federal funding to operate the two critical online databases ran out. For more than two decades, hospitals, clinicians, and others in healthcare have used the two clearinghouses to find vetted, evidence-based information on which to set policy, create clinical treatment plans, and objectively measure quality outcomes.

ECRI Institute, a nonprofit patient safety organization in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has worked for the federal government since NGC was established to develop and maintain the guidelines database. And after the funding was cut, ECRI worked behind the scenes to address concerns in the healthcare industry about the loss of such a critical resource.

ECRI announced Tuesday that it was ready to launch what it called an interim website this fall to allow continued access to the NGC information.
For complete article: http://www.hcpro.com/SAF-331535-874/ECRI-to-take-over-critical-online-resource-of-evidencebased-guidelines.html?utm_source=silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180719_HCPro_Hospital_Safety_Center_Insider%20(1)&spMailingID=13902123&spUserID=MjQ4OTc2NzA5MjQ3S0&spJobID=1441608663&spReportId=MTQ0MTYwODY2MwS2

------------------------------
Lezlee Koch
ASCLS Patient Safety Committee


Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2018 14:05
From: Lezlee Koch
Subject: Advocate Excellence – National Guidelines, Quality Measures Clearinghouses Shutting Down

Organization (Website) Origin: Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (PSQH) (https://www.psqh.com)

Topic Brief:
If you or anyone at your hospital use the National Guidelines Clearinghouse or National Quality Measures Clearinghouse operated under the auspices of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), download the information you need soon.
Both online clearinghouses will go dark after July 16 as federal funding runs out. Neither site is accepting new guidelines or quality measure sets in anticipation of shutting the databases down.

Announcements on each website note that that AHRQ has received "expressions of interest from stakeholders" that want to takeover maintenance of the databases, but AHRQ officials have declined to identify who those stakeholders are for now.

The clearinghouses were set up more than two decades ago as central sites to help hospitals, clinicians and others in health care find evidence-based information on which to set policy, create clinical treatment plans and objectively measure quality outcomes.

The guidelines and measures are submitted by various professional or academic health organization and must meet detailed criteria to be included in each database. As guidelines or measures are updated or become outdated, the information is removed.

AHRQ evaluating options
"AHRQ recognizes the importance of this resource and is evaluating potential options, including the participation of stakeholders who may wish to operate the Clearinghouse in the future," stated Alison Hunt, MPH, with AHRQ's Office of Communications, Media Division…. [Read complete article at link below]

URL: (link to PSQH article)

------------------------------
Lezlee Koch
ASCLS Patient Safety

------------------------------