Development of Updated and Enhanced Data Products for AHRQ’s Compendium of U.S. Health Systems

The Compendium comprises a system-level file that contains aggregate data at the system level as well as provider-level files that link group practices and hospitals to systems. The updates and enhancements to the Compendium will include the creation of seven updated versions of the Compendium’s system-level files and six updates to the provider-level files, the inclusion of Medicaid providers, the creation of new files to link home health and nursing home providers to the Compendium, as well as the development of new variables, including system and provider characteristics, and data products that will increase the utility of the Compendium for researchers and other users.

Additionally, this project will develop Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Use Case analyses that demonstrates how the Compendium can provide insights into health system approaches to improve performance and implement PCOR evidence. The project will also host two webinars a year to give Compendium users additional support on how to utilize the resource and disseminate findings from the Compendium.

As part of this initiative, Mathematica led the Coordinating Center for Comparative Health System Performance to leverage the expertise, infrastructure, and resources across the Centers of Excellence, created the Compendium for 2016 and 2018, and conducted analyses using the Compendium to examine health systems, their components, and how they deliver care.