Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in estimates of AHRQ patient safety indicators.
Med Care
; 43(3 Suppl): I48-57, 2005 Mar.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-15746591
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Patient safety events that result from the happenstance of mistakes and errors should not occur systematically across racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic subgroups.OBJECTIVE:
To determine whether racial and ethnic differences in patient safety events disappear when income (a proxy for socioeconomic status) is taken into account. RESEARCHDESIGN:
This study analyzes administrative data from community hospitals in 16 states with reliable race/ethnicity measures in the 2000 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), using the publicly available AHRQ patient safety indicators (PSIs).RESULTS:
Different indicators show different results for different racial/ethnic subgroups. Many events with higher rates for non-Hispanic blacks (compared with non-Hispanic whites) remain higher when income is taken into account, although such differences for Hispanics or Asian/Pacific Islanders (APIs) tend to disappear. Many events with lower rates for Hispanics and APIs remain lower than whites when income is taken into account, but for blacks, they disappear.DISCUSSION:
The higher rates for minorities that reflect the way health care is delivered raise troubling questions about potential racial/ethnic bias and discrimination in the US health care system, problems with cultural sensitivity and effective communication, and access to high-quality health care providers.CONCLUSIONS:
The AHRQ PSIs are a broad screen for potential safety events that point to needed improvement in the quality of care for specific populations.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Patients
/
Quality of Health Care
/
Safety
/
United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
/
Medical Errors
/
Quality Indicators, Health Care
/
Iatrogenic Disease
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Newborn
/
Pregnancy
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Med Care
Year:
2005
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States