Study finds disparities, improvement in quality of care
Physician Practice Advisor, January 18, 2006
Although healthcare disparities are narrowing overall for many minority Americans, gaps have widened in both the quality of care and access to care for Hispanics, according to reports by Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
The 2005 National Healthcare Quality Report found that overall quality of care for all Americans improved at a rate of 2.8%, the same increase shown in last year's report. The 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report found that many of the largest disparities in measures of quality and access are observed for low-income people regardless of race or ethnicity, with some signs of improvement.
Overall, more racial disparities in quality of care were narrowing than were widening, and most racial disparities in access to care were narrowing. But for Hispanics, the majority of disparities for both quality and access were growing wider.
