Quality of Care

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Health care systems worldwide struggle to deliver superior care at an affordable cost. Gaps between the health care people receive and the care they should receive can contribute to poor outcomes and higher spending.

RAND Health identifies ways to improve health care and share quality assessments with patients, providers, and payers.

From the RAND Blog

Do You Get What You Pay For? Maybe Not in Health Care — Feb 12, 2013

While the current state of the evidence does not provide clear guidance to policymakers seeking to address the twin pillars of health care quality and cost, it is apparent that researchers must produce more detailed data on how to reduce health care spending while improving quality, writes Peter Hussey.

Are You a 'Wise' Health Care Consumer? — Feb 5, 2013

To be wise purchasers of health care services, consumers need access to accurate and understandable information about health plans and providers. They wrongly assume that more expensive providers are better than less expensive ones, despite inconsistent evidence that there is any link between health care cost and quality.

Latest Research and Publications

Engagement Is Key to Improving Depression Care in Underserved Communities

women in dryer chairsIncorporating community programs such as churches, social service providers, and beauty salons into efforts to improve depression care in low-income neighborhoods can help improve quality of life and lower the risk of a life crisis.

Improving Care for Medicare Beneficiaries with Physician Payment Reform

doctor speaking with senior patientPhysician payment policy is shifting from one that incentivizes the delivery of more services without regard to quality or outcomes to one that incentivizes the delivery of high quality, resource conscious health care. Thoughtful incentive design can ease the transition process for both physicians and the Medicare program.

Impact of Socioeconomic Adjustment on Physicians' Relative Cost of Care

Young doctor holding elderly womanOngoing efforts to profile physicians on their relative cost of care have been criticized because they do not account for differences in patients' socioeconomic status (SES).
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Cover: Helping Hospitals Deliver Better Care

Helping Hospitals Deliver Better Care: A New Toolkit for Quality Improvement

A team from RAND and the University HealthSystem Consortium developed a toolkit to help hospitals enhance their quality improvement efforts using quality indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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