WASHINGTON – Rhode Island has one of the nation’s best health care systems, according to new reports by The Commonwealth Fund and the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“When compared to other states, Rhode Island clearly demonstrates that [it] is among the best of the best,” said Hospital Association of Rhode Island President Edward J. Quinlan.
The state ranks fifth nationwide in overall quality of care in the AHRQ’s State Snapshots, an Internet-based tool based on 129 measures that draws upon more than 30 sources, from annual government surveys to reports by health care facilities and organizations. The Web tool puts Ocean State hospitals in the 75th percentile for quality of care.
In Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, released today by The Commonwealth Fund’s, Rhode Island ranks sixth nationwide in health care quality, behind Hawaii, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Rounding out the Top 10 are Connecticut, Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
The 32-indicator State Scorecard is a follow-up to the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance published last year. It “assesses state variation across key dimensions of health system performance: access; quality; avoidable hospital use and costs; equity; and healthy lives,” the authors write. “The findings document wide variation among states and the potential for substantial improvement – in terms of access, quality, costs and lives – if all states approached levels achieved by the top states.”
The Scorecard also found that Ocean State hospitals rank first nationwide in providing recommended care to patients with heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia, the state hospital association noted.
“Measuring and improving clinical performance has long been a top priority for hospitals in Rhode Island,” said HARI’s Quinlan, adding: “These reports show, once again, that statewide efforts to improve clinical care in Rhode Island are effective.”
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote health care access, affordability and efficiency. Its new report, Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, is available at www.commonwealthfund.org.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Information about the AHRQ and its new State Snapshots tool can be found at statesnapshots.ahrq.gov.
