AHRQ report shows little improvement in states' healthcare quality

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released its annual state healthcare quality report Wednesday, showing disappointing gains.

According to the "State Snapshots" report, states improved care between 1994 and 2005 by an average of 2 percent per year. AHRQ officials attributed the improvement to "some important advances," but also said the relatively small improvement "points to an overall slowing in quality gains."

The top five states offering the highest quality of healthcare, according to the report, are Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.

The report was based on data from every state and more than 30 sources, including government surveys, healthcare facilities and healthcare organizations, and is used to help states find areas that may need more focus, the AHRQ said. The report shows a state's healthcare quality in various care settings, by clinical areas and in other areas including obesity prevention, health insurance coverage, mental illness care and the number of specialist doctors available in the state.

"This year's 'State Snapshots' do more than illustrate the wide variations in health care quality among states," said AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, MD. "They also show a handful of the important challenges that states face as they work to improve the quality of care."

The report also ranked states according to 15 "selected measures." These rankings show that no state does well or poorly in all areas, the AHRQ said.

This year's report provides new features, including demographics that show what percentage of each state is poor, uninsured, enrolled in Medicaid, age 65 or older, black, Hispanic and lacking a college degree. It also provides health information showing what portion of each state's population is overweight, at risk for stroke and heart disease or in poor mental health.

The report also shows hospitalization rates, the number of people enrolled in HMOs and the number of available physician specialists.

"State Snapshots" was based on data from the March 3 release of the 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report.

According to the AHRQ, this fifth annual quality report reveals the need to accelerate progress in high quality healthcare. Variation in healthcare quality is decreasing nationwide, but not for all measures, the report concludes, and while the safety of healthcare has improved since 2000, more needs to be done.