Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), located in Rockville, MD, a suburb of Washington, D.C., is one of 12 Agencies within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Agency was established as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) as a constituent unit of the Public Health Service (PHS) under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (103 Stat. 2159), December 19, 1989, to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services and access to care by conducting and supporting research, demonstration projects, and evaluations; developing guidelines; and disseminating information on health care services and delivery systems.

However, AHCPR became controversial when it produced several guidelines that some thought would reduce medical drugs and procedures. This included concern from ophthalmologists on a cataract guideline and concern by the pharmaceutical industry over a reduction in the use of new drugs. When the agency produced a guideline that concluded that back pain surgery was unnecessary and potentially harmful, a lobbying campaign aided by Congressmen whose backs had been operated on changed the name of the agency and scaled back the guidelines program, which now exists as the National Guideline Clearinghouse. AHCPR was reauthorized December 6, 1999, for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999, which amended Title IX of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 299 et seq).

During its early years, the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research implemented large multidisciplinary, multi-institutional projects that focused on patient results in certain medical conditions in an effort to improve clinical practice. This has included basic health IT research, patient safety research on wrong site surgery, medical teamwork, and hospital acquired conditions such as MRSA and VRE.

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