AHRQ National Scorecard on Hospital-Acquired Conditions

AHRQ has developed a foundation of patient safety research and tools, and this work continues to provide valuable assets and advance the scientific framework for implementation of these collaborative efforts, including the AHRQ National Scorecard on Hospital-Acquired Conditions. The National Scorecard presents cumulative data on the nation’s progress toward reducing HACs.

The scorecard shows an overall decline of HACs, such as adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated bloodstream infections, and surgical site infections, among others. This decline resulted in 350,000 fewer HACs in 2015 and 2016, representing an 8 percent decline, and 8,000 inpatient deaths averted and $2.9 billion in health care costs saved from 2014 to 2016.

Created in 2011, the National Scorecard was developed to serve as a measurement strategy for HHS to track HAC rates from 2010 through 2014. Between 2010 and 2014, the National Scorecard showed that overall HACs dropped 17 percent, resulting in 2.1 million fewer harms to patients, saving almost $20 billion in health care costs and preventing 87,000 deaths. In 2016, CMS established a new goal of reducing HACs by 20 percent between 2014 and 2019. In addition, this year, AHRQ has established a revised method for calculating the national HAC rates, and progress beginning in 2014 will be tracked from this baseline through 2019 using this methodology.

Data in the new National Scorecard showed that most—but not all—HACs have declined over the period from 2014 to 2016. For example, from 2014 to 2016, adverse drug events dropped 15 percent while pressure ulcers or pressure injuries increased 10 percent. While most harms have decreased and major progress in reducing HACs has been shown since 2010, opportunities remain for continued improvement.

AHRQ National Scorecard on Hospital Acquired Conditions

• FY 2018 HOSPITAL ACQUIRED CONDITIONS LIST (UPDATED 11/14/17) [ZIP, 394KB]
• FY 2017 HOSPITAL ACQUIRED CONDITIONS LIST [ZIP, 417KB]
• FY2017 DRA HAC Update Summary [PDF, 209KB]
• FY 2016 ICD-10 HAC List [ZIP, 345KB]

ICD-10 HAC List (10/1/15)

This is an overview of the CMS rules on Hospital Acquired Conditions and POA Indicators. Click to view or download.

Updated Fact Sheet (December, 2015)

TextOnly version of the Fact Sheet (December, 2015)