Future Directions for the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports

The Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 ¹ directed AHRQ to develop two annual reports. Shortly thereafter, AHRQ contracted with the IOM to develop a vision for the reports and the reports' content and presentation. AHRQ's request subsequently led to the publication of two IOM reports: Envisioning the National Healthcare Quality Report (IOM, 2001) and Guidance for the National Healthcare Disparities Report ( IOM, 2002). The recommendation of the IOM report Envisioning the National Healthcare Quality Report was that the conceptual framework for the NHDR be the same as that for the NHQR. Although equity was not visually represented in the conceptual framework presented in Envisioning the National Healthcare Quality Report, it clearly stated that equity was to be a crosscutting component. The conceptual framework was later modified by Guidance for the National Healthcare Disparities Report to visually depict equity, which is the framework depicted in Figure C-1.

Figure C-1. The original conceptual framework for the NHQR and NHDR

Consumer Perspectives on Health Care Needs	Components of Health Care Quality
	Safety	Effectiveness	Patient Centeredness	Timeliness
Staying Healthy
Getting Better
Living with Illness or Disability
Coping with the End of Life
					Equity

Source: IOM, 2002.

References

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2001. Envisioning the National Healthcare Quality Report. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
2002. Guidance for the National Healthcare Disparities Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

¹ Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999, Public Law 106-129 §902(g) and §913(b)(2), 106th Cong., 1st sess. (November 19, 1999).

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