How Significant Overall Was PFQ in Contributing to AHRQs Broader Strategic Goals?
From our perspective, PFQ was reasonably successful as a grant program taking into account the varied objectives of the diverse grantees that were funded. Most grantees did what they said they would, although the overall impact of all 20 projects was not as fully realized as AHRQ program initiators had hoped. PFQ had a core set of 12 grants focused on directly changing clinical practice and outcomes, at least 8 of which already have some evidence of positive outcomes. Most of these efforts produced sustainable changes in day-to-day practice that will enable and foster regular quality monitoring and continuous quality improvement in nursing homes, primary care physician offices, hospitals and home health agencies. While five other projects had goals that also focused on improving clinical quality and outcomes but stopped short of trying to directly change practice, they did generate valuable lessons about how to provide an infrastructure and set of financial incentives for such efforts.
