AHRQ: States see improvements in health care quality, but disparities persist

States are seeing improvements in health care quality, but disparities for their minority and low- income residents persist, according to the 2010 State Snapshots, released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island showed the greatest overall performance improvement in 2010. The five states with the smallest overall performance improvement were Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. As in previous years, AHRQ's 2010 State Snapshots show that no state does well or poorly on all quality measures.

Among minority and low-income Americans, the level of health care quality and access to services remained unfavorable. The size of disparities related to race and income varied widely across the states.

"Every American should have access to high-quality, appropriate and safe health care, and we need to increase our efforts to achieve that goal because our slow progress is not acceptable," said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. "These AHRQ 2010 State Snapshots not only provide states with a benchmark on how they are doing in these areas, but they also provide resources that states can use to make improvements."

The 2010 State Snapshots, an interactive Web-based tool, show whether a state has improved or worsened on specific health care quality measures. For each state and the District of Columbia, this tool features an individual performance summary of more than 100 measures, such as preventing pressure sores, screening for diabetes-related foot problems and giving recommended care to pneumonia patients. It also compares each state to others in its region and the nation.

Easy-to-read data charts indicate current strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement for each state. Health leaders, insurers, providers, researchers and consumers can use the State Snapshots data to examine the extent of health care quality and disparities in their states and take steps to address gaps in quality care and access to services.

The 2010 State Snapshots summarize health care data by:

• Overall health care quality;
• Type of care (preventive, acute and chronic);
• Treatment setting (hospital, ambulatory care, nursing home and home health) ;
• Five clinical conditions (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, maternal and child health and respiratory diseases); and
• Strongest and weakest quality measures, as compared with other states.