2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report

Abstract

Key Themes and Highlights From the National Healthcare Disparities Report Twenty years ago, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Black and Minority Health. That report documented many disparities in health and led to interventions to improve the health and health care of minorities. This year, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is pleased to release the third National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR). This annual report provides a comprehensive national overview of disparities in health care among racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in the general U.S. population and within priority populations and tracks the success of activities to reduce disparities. It is a companion report to the National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR), a comprehensive overview of quality of health care in America. A major advantage of an annual report series is its ability to track changes over time. This year, data are presented that begin tracking trends across a broad array of measures of health care quality and access for many racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. In addition, the 2005 report begins to examine the issue of whether the Nation is making progress toward eliminating health care disparities. The NHDR tracks disparities in both quality of health care and access to health care. Measures of health care quality mirror those in the NHQR and encompass four dimensions of quality—effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, and patient centeredness. Measures of health care access are unique to this report and encompass two dimensions of access—facilitators and barriers to care and health care utilization.