AHRQ: Quality of hospital care is improving rapidly

Quality of hospital care is improving more rapidly than quality of ambulatory care, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality’s (AHRQ’s) National Healthcare Quality Report 2013.

As mandated by Congress, AHRQ has reported on progress and opportunities for improving healthcare quality, reducing healthcare disparities and improving access for the past 11 years. The latest report, at 244 pages, was released this month.

Across all measures of healthcare quality, 60 percent showed improvement, AHRQ found. Only about half of the ambulatory care quality measures showed improvement compared with three-quarters of the hospital care quality measures. Approximately 60 percent of quality measures in home health and hospices and in nursing homes improved, according to the report.

Also, four adolescent vaccination measures make the list of measures that are improving at the fastest pace. Of the eight quality measures that are getting worse at the fastest pace, two relate to diabetes and two relate to maternal and child health, the report revealed.

On average, in 2010, Americans received 70 percent of indicated healthcare services and failed to receive 30 percent of the care they needed to treat or prevent particular medical conditions. “The gap between best possible care and what is routinely delivered remains substantial across the nation,” AHRQ researchers wrote.  

The report also noted improvement in quality across all racial, ethnic and income groups, although a smaller proportion of measures showed improvement among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Read the full repot here.