The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a new Web-based tool that can help hospitals enhance their patient safety performance by quickly detecting potential medical errors in patients who have undergone medical or surgical care. Hospitals then investigate to determine whether the problems detected were caused by potentially preventable medical errors or have some other explanations.

The Patient Safety Indicators at www.qualityindicators.ahrq.gov are part of a major AHRQ program to improve the safety of patients ...