AHRQ releases annual reports on national healthcare quality and disparities
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
March 5, 2008
The quality of healthcare at a national level got better by 2.3% each year from 1995 through 2005, says the 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparities Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). However, this improvement rate has dropped from 3.1% in the 2006 version of these two reports. In addition, these reports estimate that healthcare quality is rising at a slower rate than the cost of healthcare, which rose by 6.7% during the same period of time.This is the fifth consecutive year that the AHRQ has released these reports. The data is pulled from three national databases. Although there were some improvements in specific measures, such as 93% of heart failure patients receiving recommended hospital care (up from 77%), many of the largest disparities among Americans divided by race, ethnicity, and income remained.
To read the 2007 reports, click here.
