How Good Is the Quality of Health Care in the United States?

Studies over the past decade show that some people are receiving more care than they need, and some are receiving less. Simple averages from a number of studies indicate that 50 percent of people received recommended preventive care; 70 percent, recommended acute care; 30 percent, contraindicated ac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Milbank quarterly 1998-01, Vol.76 (4), p.517-563
Main Authors: Schuster, Mark A., McGlynn, Elizabeth A., Brook, Robert H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease - therapy
Chronic Disease - therapy
Consumer protection
Coronary artery bypass
Delivery of Health Care - standards
Delivery of Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Health care
Health care quality
Health Care Services
Health Care Surveys
Health Care Utilization
Health Services Misuse - statistics & numerical data
Hospital admissions
Hospital records
Humans
Improving the Quality of Health Care
Medical records
Medicare
Mortality
Myocardial infarction
Original
Patient assessment
Physicians
Preventive Health Services - standards
Preventive Health Services - statistics & numerical data
Public health
Qualitative analysis
Quality
Quality Indicators, Health Care
Quality of Health Care
Quality of Health Care - classification
Quality of Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Quality of service
U.S.A
United States
United States of America
USA
Utilization Review - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:Studies over the past decade show that some people are receiving more care than they need, and some are receiving less. Simple averages from a number of studies indicate that 50 percent of people received recommended preventive care; 70 percent, recommended acute care; 30 percent, contraindicated acute care; 60 percent, recommended chronic care; and 20 percent, contraindicated chronic care. These studies strongly suggest that the care delivered in the United States often does not meet professional standards. Efforts to measure quality and report routinely on the results to the public at large would allow more definitive assessments of the status of the nation's health care and would enable us to single out the areas in need of improvement.
ISSN:0887-378X
1468-0009
DOI:10.1111/1468-0009.00105