An annual analysis intended to help health leaders identify areas of healthcare delivery that need quality improvement now includes information such as each state’s rate of obesity, health insurance coverage, mental illness, and the number of specialist physicians. Those and other measures, called “state contextual factors,” are part of the 2007 State Snapshots released March 26 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The updated State Snapshots web tool also tracks states’ progress toward reaching government-set health goals for 2010.
The data in this year’s snapshots are drawn from the 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report. That report, released earlier this month, showed the quality of health care improved by an average 2.3 percent a year between 1994 and 2005, a rate that reflects some important advances but points to an overall slowing in quality gains.
“This year’s State Snapshots do more than illustrate the wide variations in healthcare quality among states,” said AHRQ director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD. “They also show a handful of the important challenges that states face as they work to improve the quality of care.” Access the web page.
