Progress Review- Access to Quality Health Services

Abstract

In the first in a series of Progress Reviews on the 28 focus areas of Healthy People 2010, Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Eve Slater chaired a session on Access to Quality Health Services (see the focus area text at www.healthypeople.gov/document/html/volume1/01access.htm). Also participating in the meeting was Deputy Secretary Claude Allen, who stressed the close and mutually reinforcing connection between Healthy People 2010 and the Secretary’s Prevention Initiative. The Progress Review highlighted the need to increase health care coverage and to enhance the quality of that care. Discussions were led by the heads of the focus area co-lead agencies, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Administrator Elizabeth Duke and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Acting Director Carolyn Clancy, and by National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Director Edward Sondik. (For the meeting agenda and a graphic representation of data on selected objectives within the focus area, refer to the following site maintained by NCHS: www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/otheract/hpdata2010/fa1/atqhs.htm.)