Home

  • Home
    • » e-Newsletters

Study: Quality of care has improved in U.S.

Quality Improvement Monitor, July 21, 2005

Hospitals showed consistent improvement in quality of care for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia during a two-year period, according to a study in the July 21 New England Journal of Medicine.

Reserachers found a significant improvement in the performance of U.S. hospitals on 15 of 18 performance measures, and no measure showed a significant deterioration. The performance measures include smoking cessation for acute myocardial infarction patients, for example.

Improvement ranged from 3% to 33% during the two-year period. For 16 of the 17 process-of-care measures, hospitals with a low performance level at the beginning of the study showed greater improvement during the study period than hospitals with a high original performance level, researchers said.

Researchers collected data over a two-year peridod from more than 3,000 accredited hospitals. All participating hospitals received quarterly feedback in the form of comparative reports during the study.

Most Popular