AHRQ’s Patient Safety Chartbook shows 17% decline in HACs

Editor's Note

Patient safety in hospitals improved from 2010 to 2014 as the overall rate of hospital-acquired conditions (HACS) declined 17%, according to the new National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report Patients Safety Chartbook from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The overall HAC rate declined from 145/1,000 hospital stays in 2010 to 121/1,000 in 2013 and 2014. Approximately 2 million harmful events were avoided from 2010 to 2014, saving an estimated 87,000 lives and $20 billion in healthcare costs.

Examples of HACs include surgical site infections, pressure ulcers, and catheter-associated urinary tract and vascular infections.

This Patient Safety chartbook is part of a family of documents and tools that support the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (QDR). The QDR includes annual reports to Congress mandated in the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-129).