Assessing Health Care Quality for Minority and Other Disparity Populations Final rept

摘要

Considerable progress has been made over the past decade in the provision of quality health care. However, health care quality is not equitably distributed throughout the general population. Health care consumers who are members of certain groups, termed 'disparity populations,' frequently confront disparities in health care quality relative to the general population. Members of these disparity populations include racial and ethnic minorities, low-income persons, children, women, the elderly, rural and urban residents, persons with disabilities and chronic illness, and persons near the end of life. In order to ensure the quality of care for members of these groups, quality measures relevant and/or specific to these populations are needed. This report describes the state-of-the-art quality measurements for disparity populations, identifies gaps in existing measures, and highlights critical areas for future research.