The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) is 1 of 12 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. The Agency fulfills this mission by conducting health care services research which examines how people get access to health care, how much care costs, and what happens as a result of the care they receive. The principal goals of health services research are to identify the most effective ways to organize manage, finance, and deliver high quality care,...

Health care helps people stay healthy, recover from illness, live with chronic disease or disability, and cope with dying. Quality health care delivers these services in a way that is safe, timely, patient centered, efficient, and equitable. Unfortunately, Americans too often do not receive care that they need or they receive care that causes harm. Care can be delivered too late or without full consideration of a patient's preferences and values. Many times, our system of health care distributes services inefficiently and unevenly across populations. Each year since 2003, the Agency for...