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 results.
- Patient-Centered: Health care 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 providers' or patients' money or time.
- Equitable: Everyone is entitled to high quality health care. This includes people of all cultures, incomes, levels of education and social statuses.
"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?
The quality of the care you receive may differ 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 health care providers about the quality of care they are receiving.
- Helps doctors' offices see how they are doing compared with other doctors' offices in the state, and how they can improve the care they give.
What parts of health care does this website measure?
This website helps patients answer questions about their health care quality:
- What do patients experience when they see their providers? The Patient Experience Survey is an annual statewide survey that asks patients to report about their experiences with a specific primary care provider and with that doctor's office. To learn more about the Patient Experience Survey, click here.
- 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 type of care was given to patients at doctors’ offices. To learn more about the Clinical Quality Report, click here.