Health care quality in the United States is improving by a rate of about 2.3 percent per year, but gaps based on race, socioeconomic status and other factors remain high, according to federal government reports released Monday. The findings are based on an analysis of more than 200 health care measures in categories of quality such as effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, efficiency, access, care coordination and focus on the patient. Improvements were seen in a number of categories, with the greatest advances in treatment of acute illness or injuries. For example, the number of heart attack patients who had procedures to open up blocked heart arteries within 90 minutes improved from 42 percent in 2005 to 81 percent in 2008, said the 2010 National Healthcare Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparities Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
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