The National Healthcare Quality Report, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, represents the first national comprehensive effort to measure the quality of health care in America. The report includes a broad set of performance measures that can serve as baseline views of the quality of health care. The report presents data on the quality of services for seven clinical conditions, including cancer, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, heart disease, HIV and AIDS, mental health, and respiratory disease. It also includes data on maternal and child health, nursing home and home health care, and patient safety. Future reports will help the nation make continuous improvements by tracking quality through a consistent set of measures that will be updated as new measures and data become available.
Key Findings:
• The measures used in this report reveal variation across both States and measures, thereby highlighting the opportunity to improve quality of nursing home and home health care.
• Progress has been made in reducing use of physical restraints in nursing homes. Nationally, less than 10% of chronic care nursing home residents are in physical restraints, although this ranged from 2.7% to 22.4 % among States.
• Although not all patients can be expected to improve, 57% of home health patients who needed assistance with bathing improved.
• Although not all patients can be expected to improve, 35% of home health patients who needed assistance with managing oral medications improved.
Full reports:
The National Healthcare Quality Report -2005
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhqr05/nhqr05.pdf
The National Healthcare Disparities Report -2005
http://www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov/disparitiesreport/download_report.aspx
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