National Healthcare Disparities Report - LDI Health Economist

Introduction and Methods
a new section that includes structural, process, and outcome measures to examine the quality of the health
care safety net. Among the areas addressed in this new section are the magnitude of underserved populations
in health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) and the performance of federally qualified health centers.
Chapter 9: Access measures cut across several priority areas and include measures that focus on barriers to
care, such as the U.S. population that is uninsured, financial barriers to care experienced by the population
with health insurance, and people with a usual source of care.
Chapter 1
Chapter 10: Priority Populations continues to be unique to the NHDR. This chapter summarizes quality
and disparities in care for populations identified as particularly significant to quality improvement, including
racial and ethnic minorities, low-income populations, older adults, residents of rural areas and inner cities,
and individuals with disabilities or special health care needs.
Appendixes are available online for both the NHQR and NHDR at www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr11.htm. These
include:
n Data Sources, which provides information about each database analyzed for the reports, including
data type, sample design, and primary content.
n Measure Specifications, which provides information about how measures are generated and analyzed
for the reports. Measures highlighted in the report are described, as well as other measures that were
examined but not included in the text of the report.
n Detailed Methods, which provides detailed methodological and statistical information about selected
databases analyzed for the reports.
n Data Tables, which contains detailed data tables for most measures analyzed for the reports,
including measures highlighted in the report text and measures examined but not included in the
text. A few measures cannot support detailed tables and are not included in the appendix.
Table 1.1 provides a crosswalk between the National Quality Strategy priorities and the report chapters.
Chapter 10, Priority Populations, addresses all six priorities.
Table 1.1. Relationship of NHQR and NHDR to the National Quality Strategy
National Quality Strategy Priorities
Making sure care is safer by reducing harm in the delivery of care
NHQR and NHDR Chapters Addressing Priority
Chapter 3: Patient Safety
Ensuring that each person and his or her family members are engaged Chapter 5: Patient Centeredness
as partners in their care
Promoting effective communication and coordination of care
Promoting the most effective prevention and treatment practices
for the leading causes of mortality, starting with cardiovascular disease
Working with communities to promote wide use of best practices
to enable healthy living
Making quality care more affordable for individuals, families,
employers, and governments, by developing and spreading new
health care delivery models
Chapter 6: Care Coordination
Chapter 2: Effectiveness, Cardiovascular Disease
Chapter 2: Effectiveness, Lifestyle Modification
Chapter 7: Efficiency
Chapter 9: Access
38 National Healthcare Disparities Report, 2011