Disparities in Health Care Quality Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups: Findings From the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports, 2008

Disparities in Health Care Quality Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups
Findings From the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports, 2008
Fact Sheet

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Since 2003, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has produced the National Healthcare Quality Report and the National Healthcare Disparities Report. Despite improvements, differences persist in health care quality among racial and ethnic minority groups. People in low-income families also experience poorer quality care. This fact sheet discusses differences between groups in terms of relative rates, which is the ratio of the comparison group (e.g., Black) to a baseline group (e.g., White).

Select for print version (PDF File, 385 KB; PDF Help).
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhqrdr08/nhqrdrminority08.pdf

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Contents
Introduction
Disparities Persist in Health Care Quality and Access
Magnitude and Patterns of Disparities Differ Among Various Populations
Some Disparities Exist Across Multiple Priority Populations
Limited English Proficiency Is a Barrier to Quality Health Care
Poverty Is a Barrier to High-Quality Care
Disparities Reports Charts Related to Racial and Ethnic Minorities
For More Information

Introduction
Since 2003, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has produced the National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR) and the National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR). Although improvements have been seen in health care quality and some disparities have been reduced or eliminated, differences persist in health care quality among members of various racial and ethnic minority groups.

Three key themes emerge in the 2008 NHDR:

Disparities persist in health care quality and access.
Magnitude and patterns of disparities are different within subpopulations.
Some disparities exist across multiple priority populations.
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Disparities Persist in Health Care Quality and Access
All population groups should receive equally high quality of care. Getting into the health care system (access to care) and receiving appropriate health care in time for the services to be effective (quality of care) are key factors in ensuring good health outcomes. Both categories of measures, quality of care and access to care, show that disparities persist for all populations. Measures of quality include effectiveness (the percentage of patients with a disease or condition who get recommended care), patient safety, and timeliness.

Below are figures that illustrate for each population how disparities in quality and access have changed in the past 5 years. In each figure, "n" indicates the number of core measures. Figure 1 shows that for Blacks, Asians, American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs), and Hispanics, at least 70% of measures of quality of care are not improving (either stayed the same or worsened).

Many Americans have access to primary and hospital care. For many populations, however, barriers exist to getting needed health care, such as lack of health insurance or trouble getting appointments. Reducing disparities in access to health care is an important step to improving overall quality. Figure 2 is a summary of trends in the core measures of access.

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Disparities in Health Care Quality Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups: Findings From the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports, 2008