How Has the Quality of the U.S. Health Care System Changed Over Time?

This chart collection examines five types of indicators: outcomes of treatment, provision of appropriate treatment, patient safety, preventive services, and health system capacity and workforce shortages.

Measuring quality in health care is complex: a vast number of metrics are used to monitor health system performance since there is no singular definition of quality, and data is often limited and delayed. While no single indicator represents overall quality, identifying common trends can help determine whether the U.S. health care system is improving or declining over time and identify areas for improvement.

The chart collection is part of the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an online information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.