An annual national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System showed that despite pockets of improvement, the United States as a whole failed to improve when compared to best performers in this country and to other nations.
Specifically, the scorecard showed the U.S. healthcare system scored 64 out of 100 on key measures of performance. The 2011 score of 64 was slightly below the overall score of 67 in the first national scorecard published in 2006 and the score of 65 in the second scorecard in 2008. The scorecard also highlights significant erosion in access to care and affordability of care.
The United States also scored particularly poorly on measures of health system efficiency, scoring only 53 out of a possible 100. This area of the scorecard includes such issues as evidence of duplicative services, high rates of hospital readmissions, relatively low use of electronic information systems, and high administrative costs. Other areas of concern include primary and preventive care; childhood obesity; infant mortality; safe care and rehospitalizations.
Despite evidence showing little progress, public reporting of quality data on federal websites and collaborative initiatives have resulted in substantial and rapid improvements on some quality indicators, including treatment of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia and prevention of surgical complications. Despite these improvements, quality still varies widely across the country. For example, despite a 13 percent drop in hospital admissions for heart failure and pediatric asthma from 2004-2007, rates vary twofold to fourfold across states.
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Specifically, the scorecard showed the U.S. healthcare system scored 64 out of 100 on key measures of performance. The 2011 score of 64 was slightly below the overall score of 67 in the first national scorecard published in 2006 and the score of 65 in the second scorecard in 2008. The scorecard also highlights significant erosion in access to care and affordability of care.
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The United States also scored particularly poorly on measures of health system efficiency, scoring only 53 out of a possible 100. This area of the scorecard includes such issues as evidence of duplicative services, high rates of hospital readmissions, relatively low use of electronic information systems, and high administrative costs. Other areas of concern include primary and preventive care; childhood obesity; infant mortality; safe care and rehospitalizations.
Despite evidence showing little progress, public reporting of quality data on federal websites and collaborative initiatives have resulted in substantial and rapid improvements on some quality indicators, including treatment of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia and prevention of surgical complications. Despite these improvements, quality still varies widely across the country. For example, despite a 13 percent drop in hospital admissions for heart failure and pediatric asthma from 2004-2007, rates vary twofold to fourfold across states.
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