AHRQ awards measures clearinghouse contract
The government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded the healthcare consultancy and research organization ECRI the contract to operate, maintain, and enhance the AHRQ National Guideline and National Quality Measures clearinghouses, which get a combined 3.4 million visits each year.
The clearinghouses are searchable databases of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and healthcare quality measures and related information. The goal is to give providers, payers, and other interested parties a way to get information on those measures and guidelines.
ECRI, based in Plymouth Meeting, PA, was given the contract to implement more rigorous inclusion criteria for both of the sites, and ensure that everything included in them used good science in their development. The organization will also indicate whether the individual items in the National Guidelines Clearinghouse adhere to the standards for development recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
The National Guidelines Clearinghouse is at http://www.guideline.gov, and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse can be found at http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov/.
