HHS, AHRQ Issues The National Healthcare Disparities Report

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued the National Healthcare Disparities Report. Developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the report represents the first national comprehensive effort to measure differences in access and use of health care services by various populations.

It also includes a broad set of performance measures that can serve as baseline views of differences in the use of services. The National Healthcare Disparities Report presents data on the differences in the use of services, access to health care, and impressions of quality for seven clinical conditions, including cancer, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, heart disease, HIV and AIDS, mental health, and respiratory disease as well as data on maternal and child health, nursing home and home health care, and patient safety. It also examines differences in use of services by priority populations.

Future reports will help the nation make continuous improvement by tracking differences through a consistent set of measures that will be updated as new measures and data become available.

The National Healthcare Disparities Report is availalbe online in PDF format at http://www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov/disparitiesreport/documents/NHDR.pdf.