CPHQ Practice Test: Free Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality Exam Questions

250 practice questions for the CPHQ (Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality) exam, built on the CPHQ Detailed Content Outline in NAHQ's 2026 candidate handbook. They follow its 7 domains, weighted the way the real exam is, from Performance and Process Improvement (27 of 125 scored questions) and Health Data Analytics (26) to Quality Leadership and Integration (19), Patient Safety (18), Quality Review and Accountability (16), Population Health and Care Transitions (11) and Regulatory and Accreditation (8), and cover every task under them. Most are workplace moments: which tool fits, which chart, what the data really say, what the regulation requires and what to do next. Each is tagged to its task code, so your score report shows exactly which tasks you miss, and every answer explains why the best choice is best and names its public source.

The real test: 140 multiple-choice questions (125 scored, 15 unscored pretest) in 3 hours, on a computer at a PSI test center or online with a remote proctor. It is scored on a scale of 200 to 800 and 600 passes; the passing point is set by an expert panel and equated across exam versions, so there is no fixed percent. NAHQ reported a 53% worldwide pass rate for 2024. Our practice test is full length, 125 scored questions plus 15 unscored, split by the 7 domains like the outline, passing at 70% (88 of 125).

Here: 250 questions. Our own practice questions, built on the CPHQ Detailed Content Outline (updated March 2023) and written from public sources (CMS, AHRQ, IHI, CDC, The Joint Commission's public policies, NPSF's RCA2, ISMP and the published quality and safety literature), with every answer's source named. Topics are the 7 domains of the outline. Not NAHQ's test questions. Free.

What's on the test

"On the test" is the rough share of a 125-question test for each topic, following the exam's published weights.

10 sample questions

1. The quality director wants senior leaders to fund a sepsis project. Which framing is most likely to win support?

   • A.Present a literature review of every sepsis study published in the last five years
   • B.Link the project to a strategic goal and show the cost of current harm
   • C.Ask each department head to vote on whether sepsis matters
   • D.Describe the project as a regulatory requirement that leaves leaders no choice
   Show answer

   B. Link the project to a strategic goal and show the cost of current harm

   CPHQ-1 · 1. Quality Leadership and Integration

2. After QI training, managers check whether staff now use run charts in their huddles. Which Kirkpatrick level is this?

   • A.Level 1, reaction to the training
   • B.Level 4, results
   • C.Level 3, behavior
   • D.Level 2, learning measured by a test at the end of class
   Show answer

   C. Level 3, behavior

   CPHQ-39 · 2. Performance and Process Improvement

3. How did Kindig and Stoddart define population health?

   • A.The health outcomes of a group, including how they are distributed within it
   • B.The total number of hospital beds available in a region per 1,000 residents
   • C.Public health department programs
   • D.The average life expectancy of a nation's elderly residents compared with other countries
   Show answer

   A. The health outcomes of a group, including how they are distributed within it

   CPHQ-93 · 3. Population Health and Care Transitions

4. Two departments report different fall rates for the same month from the same system. What is the most likely fix?

   • A.Averaging the two rates
   • B.A shared data dictionary with one definition of a fall and of patient days
   • C.Reporting whichever rate is lower to leadership
   • D.Buying a new electronic health record from a different vendor next fiscal year
   Show answer

   B. A shared data dictionary with one definition of a fall and of patient days

   CPHQ-115 · 4. Health Data Analytics

5. Which technology checks the right patient, drug, dose, route and time at the bedside just before a medication is given?

   • A.An automated dispensing cabinet
   • B.Computerized provider order entry, which checks the order when it is written
   • C.Barcode medication administration
   • D.A smart pump's drug library
   Show answer

   C. Barcode medication administration

   CPHQ-167 · 5. Patient Safety

6. Which organization publishes the list of Serious Reportable Events, often called 'never events'?

   • A.The National Quality Forum
   • B.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
   • C.The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, which also runs a national error reporting program
   • D.The Leapfrog Group
   Show answer

   A. The National Quality Forum

   CPHQ-203 · 6. Quality Review and Accountability

7. What does 'deemed status' mean for an accredited hospital?

   • A.The hospital no longer has to report quality data
   • B.The hospital can bill Medicare at higher rates than hospitals that are surveyed by the state
   • C.CMS accepts its accreditor's survey as showing it meets the Conditions of Participation
   • D.The hospital is exempt from all state licensing laws
   Show answer

   C. CMS accepts its accreditor's survey as showing it meets the Conditions of Participation

   CPHQ-235 · 7. Regulatory and Accreditation

8. Readmission rates rose for two quarters. Before advising leaders, what should the quality professional do first?

   • A.Announce a new readmission reduction program to all clinical staff right away
   • B.Confirm the data are accurate and look for a real signal, not noise
   • C.Ask the CFO to set aside a budget for the coming penalties
   • D.Replace the discharge planning team with a new group of case managers
   Show answer

   B. Confirm the data are accurate and look for a real signal, not noise

   CPHQ-2 · 1. Quality Leadership and Integration

9. Which training approach fits adult learners on an improvement team best?

   • A.A long lecture on the history of the quality movement before any project starts
   • B.Training held only after the project has finished
   • C.Short sessions tied to a real problem they will work on next
   • D.Readings with a written test and no practice
   Show answer

   C. Short sessions tied to a real problem they will work on next

   CPHQ-40 · 2. Performance and Process Improvement

10. Under federal tax rules, how often must a nonprofit hospital complete a community health needs assessment?

    • A.Every five years
    • B.Only when it adds a new service line or opens a new campus in the community
    • C.At least once every three years
    • D.Every year, before the hospital's annual budget is approved by its board of directors
    Show answer

    C. At least once every three years

    CPHQ-94 · 3. Population Health and Care Transitions

What the study guide does

• Short study rounds and flip cards.
• A practice test built like the real one: 125 questions, 88 to pass.
• Pass Meter: your chance of passing if you sat the test today, worked out from your own answers.
• An explanation for every answer.