Study says care in US uniformly mediocre
By Asssociated Press | March 16, 2006
Startling research from the biggest study ever of US healthcare quality suggests that Americans -- rich, poor, black, white -- get roughly equal treatment, but that it's woefully mediocre for all.
''This study shows that healthcare has equal-opportunity defects," said Dr. Donald Berwick of the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge.
The survey of 6,712 patients, reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine, considered only people living in urban areas who sought treatment, but it still challenged some stereotypes: Blacks and Hispanics actually got slightly better care than whites.
While the researchers acknowledged other evidence that minorities fare worse in some areas of expensive care and suffer from some maladies more than whites, their study found that once in treatment, minorities' overall care appears similar to whites'.
''It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, white or black, insured or uninsured," said chief author Dr. Steven Asch of the Rand Health institute in Santa Monica, Calif. ''We all get equally mediocre care."
The researchers, who included US Veterans Affairs personnel, published their findings for the general population in June 2003. But today's article breaks down findings by racial, income, and other social groups.
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