Long-standing efforts to improve the country's healthcare system, including the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are making a difference, according to AHRQ's 2014 National Quality and Disparities Report, released in April of this year.
According to the report, patient safety in hospital settings has improved between 2010 and 2013, with:
- Patient harm events decreasing 17 percent
- An estimated 1.3 million fewer hospital-acquired conditions
- Deaths decreasing by 50,000; and
- Cost savings of roughly $12 billion
Measures tracking care quality have also improved overall, with measures related to recommended care for hospital patients with pneumonia and heart conditions having achieved an overall performance level of 95 percent.
Despite the progress in safety, there were still 121 adverse patient events for every 1,000 hospitalizations in 2013, and some measures still lag. For instance, only 76 percent of adults are regularly screened for high cholesterol, 52 percent of patient with hypertension have it controlled and recommended care is only delivered 70 percent of the time, according to the report.
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