What is quality health care?
Quality health care means treatment and care that is:
- Safe. Treatment helps patients and does not cause harm.
- Effective. Research shows that treatments have positive (good) results.
- Patient-centered. Healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, and others) treat all patients with respect. This means taking into account each patient's values about health and quality of life.
- Timely. Patients get the care they need at a time when it will do the most good.
- Efficient. Treatment does not waste doctors' or patients' money or time.
- Equitable. Everyone is entitled to high quality health care. This includes men and women of all cultures, income, level of education, and social status.
"Doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right person, and having the best possible result"
- Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ).
Why is it important to measure the quality of health care?
It is important to look at the quality of the health care that you receive because the quality of the care you receive can be different depending on the doctor's office you go to. Measuring health care quality:
- Helps patients understand what quality health care is, and how to talk to their doctor about the quality of care they are getting.
- Helps doctor's offices see how they can make the care they give better, and to see how they are doing compared to other doctor's offices in the state.
What parts of health care does this website measure?
This website helps patients answer two questions about their health care quality:
Are primary care doctors giving their patients the correct preventive care services (such as cancer screenings) and chronic disease care (such as asthma or diabetes care)? The Clinical Quality report looks at how this of care was given to patients at doctors' offices. To learn more about the Clinical Quality Report, click here.
How are patients' experiences with their doctor office? Does their doctor's office know about them and the care that they should be receiving? The Patient Experience Survey is a statewide survey that asks patients to report about their experiences with a specific primary care doctor and with that doctor's office. To learn more about the Patient Experience Survey report, click here.