Value, 2007

Virginia Health Information

May 2007

Virginia Health Information (VHI) developed a Web-based portal to make AHRQ's Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs)) available to the state and local departments of health in Virginia. Since July 2005, more than 100 individuals have logged in to view the PQIs.

For many years, VHI has fielded requests from stakeholders—particularly local health departments—for hospitalization rates for many preventable diseases. Each local health department had slightly different needs that were addressed with custom VHI programming. AHRQ's PQIs offered a consistent approach to developing this information across all Virginia geographic regions.

"The PQIs allow for a standardized way to research and report hospitalization rates for many common preventable conditions that interest our constituency. After meeting with many of our users, it was decided that a Web-based system would be most accessible and useful," says Michael T. Lundberg, VHI's Executive Director.

VHI spent approximately $7,000 to create a Web-based infrastructure for the PQIs. Local health departments can search the data from the 16 PQIs by geographic area to follow trends. In addition, a color-coded map allows comparison of city and county rates for each indicator—a feature designed specifically for the State Department of Health.

VHI is a non-profit organization established in 1993 with private and public funding from the state of Virginia. Charged with conducting most of Virginia's health care data reporting, VHI has a variety of stakeholders, including consumers, hospitals organizations, and health departments. VHI's mission is to create and disseminate health care information to promote informed decisionmaking and enhance the quality of health care delivery.

More information about VHI can be found at its Web site: http://www.vhi.org. The PQI application for Virginia-calculated PQIs may be found at http://www.vhi.org/pqi.

AHRQ's PQIs are located at http://www.qualityindicators.ahrq.gov/pqi_overview.htm.

Impact Case Study Identifier: CDOM 07-06
AHRQ Product: Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project—Prevention Quality Indicators (HCUP-PQIs)
Topic(s): Health Information Technology
Scope: Virginia

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