AHRQ Archives

New Model Helps Hospitals Better Respond to Potential Bioterror

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced the availability of a new computer model to help hospitals and health systems plan antibiotic dispensing and vaccination campaigns to respond to bioterrorism or large-scale natural disease outbreaks. Funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, this new resource is the nation’s first computerized staffing model that can be downloaded as a spreadsheet and used to calculate the specific needs of local health care systems based on the number of staff they have and the number of patients they would need to treat quickly in a bioterrorism event.

Doctors Commonly Treat Childhood Lung Illness with Ineffective Medicines

A new evidence report sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality says that although doctors commonly use a wide array of medications to treat bronchiolitis?the most common lower-respiratory tract disease among infants and toddlers?there is currently no compelling evidence to support these treatments.