Why Use MONAHRQ for Health Care Reporting? May 2014 Note: This is one of seven slide sets outlining MONAHRQ and its value, available at

What Is MONAHRQ? Windows-based software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to help you and your organization create your own healthcare reports and websites Evidence-based – uses measures, data sources, and reporting techniques that are based on research Quick – generates reports and websites in days, not months Easy – designed to be intuitive so no training is needed to use it Flexible – allows customization to ensure that the reports and websites are relevant Free – provided by AHRQ at no cost to anyone who wants to produce health care reports and websites The purpose of MONAHRQ is to help increase transparency by disseminating evidence-based information that is understandable and useful for improving health care safety, quality and affordability. For more information, see the “What Is MONAHRQ?” presentation 2

Reasons Why People Use MONAHRQ To meet transparency requirements to spur improvement in health care safety, quality, affordability, and patient experience As a cost-effective way to create health care reports, using less staff time and funding than needed to design a report from scratch To conduct internal or private validation of your own data, including identifying errors in the data, such as missing or incorrect values As a common platform for sharing information across multiple organizations, agencies and/or departments To ensure that the reports and websites being created use measures and approaches to design that are evidence-based, nationally-recognized and consistent with others around the country 3

What’s Involved in Measuring and Reporting on Health Care? People use MONAHRQ because it is an evidence-based, low-cost way to produce effective health care reports and websites Without MONAHRQ, the typical steps during the measurement and reporting process can be complex, time consuming and expensive 4

Options for Creating Health Care Reports and Websites Several options exist for measuring and reporting on health care: You can rely on reports from the federal government or others ► Information in the reports is chosen by others, and while the reports may be free, they might not meet your organization’s specific needs or regional characteristics You can create your own reports and websites ► Requires significant staff and financial resources to build knowledge and address each of the steps, which are often very technical (see list on previous slide) ► Gives you total control, but may reduce the opportunity for even greater impact created by being consistent with others who are also reporting to motivate improvement in many of the same topics You can use MONAHRQ ► MONAHRQ enables your organization to more easily use measures and data, and generate reports and websites on health care safety, quality and affordability ► Reports and websites created by the free MONAHRQ software reflect evidence and research on what is most effective, yet can be customized to fit your needs 5

MONAHRQ Websites and Reports Different types of websites can be generated using MONAHRQ Designed for use by clinicians, policymakers, researchers and analysts Designed for use by consumers and others in the general public Examples of reports that can be created using MONAHRQ: Hospital profile, with an overall patient experience rating and a list of the highest cost DRGs Quality of care comparison across hospitals, including patient experience ratings Emergency Department (ED) utilization Potentially avoidable hospitalizations by county Hospital use rates for conditions and procedures, by county Estimated cost savings by reducing avoidable hospital stays Hospital utilization and cost for top diagnosis related groups For more information, see the “What Types of Website and Reports Can MONAHRQ Create?” slide set available at 6

What Can MONAHRQ Do? A few examples of what you can do with MONAHRQ: Create consistency in your data structure and validate your data Establish a data set library from your data and federal sources Select from an array of hospital measures (quality, utilization, patient experience, cost). Reporting beyond the hospital is likely in future versions Customize measure information (title, description, etc.), report details and the ‘look and feel’ of your websites, then save to easily re-use them later Easily generate reports and websites based on leading edge research Set up search engine optimization, plus get feedback from your users Add new measures when available, and easily update reports and websites What MONAHRQ is not intended to do: It is not a one-size-fits-all approach, as your customization is important It is not a tool for detailed statistical analysis and calculation using raw data It is not meant to replace electronic medical records or patient registries 7

How is MONAHRQ Evolving? MONAHRQ was first released in 2010 and has evolved over time to: ► Respond to rapidly changing health care environment ► Capitalize on opportunities to create more value by adding data sources, measures and other features enabled by advances in technology The most recent major version of MONAHRQ is 5.0, which was released in Spring 2014 The following major versions of MONAHRQ are also planned: ► MONAHRQ 6.0 ► MONAHRQ 7.0 ► MONAHRQ 8.0 Though the exact release data may vary slightly, the new major versions are planned to be released annually, with patches released as necessary. 8

What Support is Available for People Who Use MONAHRQ? A Comprehensive Host User Guide Available at Also built into the software itself, so you can get right to the information you need when you are using MONAHRQ Quick Start Guide, Fact Sheet and Other Materials Available at Personalized Assistance and Connection with Other Host Users Technical assistance from the MONAHRQ team Technical assistance from the MONAHRQ team Opportunities to connect with other Host Users on webinars or calls 9

For Further Information Visit to access these additional slide sets: What is the Value of Measurement and Reporting? Why Use MONAHRQ for Health Care Reporting? How to Get Started with MONAHRQ What Types of Reports and Websites Can MONAHRQ Generate? Who Uses MONAHRQ? Future Plans for MONAHRQ and How to Get Involved To receive updates about MONAHRQ, ask to join our listserv by ing 10