Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

**Mission and Budget** The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make healthcare safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used. **Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: A Profile** The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of healthcare for all Americans. AHRQ develops the knowledge, tools, and data needed to improve the healthcare system and help consumers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers make informed health decisions. ****What We Do**** - [AHRQ invests in research on the Nation's health delivery system that goes beyond the "what" of health care to understand "how" to make health care safer and improve quality](https://www.ahrq.gov/cpi/about/profile/index.html#what1). - [AHRQ creates materials to teach and train health care systems and professionals to put the results of research into practice](https://www.ahrq.gov/cpi/about/profile/index.html#what2). - [AHRQ generates measures and data used by providers and policymakers](https://www.ahrq.gov/cpi/about/profile/index.html#what3). In 1999, an Institute of Medicine report, "To Err Is Human," documented serious patient safety problems in our health care system. In the intervening years, AHRQ has led the Nation in responding to those issues and improving the safety of health care. Using AHRQ's research and how-to tools, the U.S. health care system prevented 1.3 million errors, saved 50,000 lives, and avoided $12 billion in wasteful spending from 2010–2013. But, even with these successes, safety is far from optimal, and AHRQ's work continues.