A recent study has established a clear link between poor quality and patient outcomes. Colleagues from RAND and the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine developed a method similar to ours to evaluate the quality of care delivered to vulnerable elderly persons. They found that, after three years, 28 percent of those who had received an average of 44 percent of recommended care had died, compared with 18 percent of patients who had received on average about 62 percent of recommended care.[3]
WhatÂ’s Needed to Improve Care?
This study provides the best estimates ever available about the quality of health care in the United States. The study reveals substantial gaps between what clinicians know works and the care actually provided. These deficits persist despite initiatives by both the federal government and private health care delivery systems to improve care.
Our study is not the first to identify poor-quality care. Studies stretching back over more than four decades have documented similar levels of poor performance. However, most people still do not believe that there is a quality problem. Many think that the care delivered by their doctor or in their community is better than the care delivered in the nation as a whole. Our study shows that everyone is at risk of receiving poor care, no matter what their condition, where they live, from whom they seek care, or what their gender, race, or financial status is.
