Scorecard Shows U.S. Health System Trails Other Nations in Care Quality

A scorecard from the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System finds that, in addition to trailing other nations on key performance measures, the U.S. health care system achieves inconsistent outcomes across states, hospitals and health systems, Reuters reports. The scorecard, which was published Sept. 20 on the Health Affairs Web site, aims to provide a roadmap for U.S. improvement by pitting nationwide performance against quality, access, equity and efficiency benchmarks. Researchers set the measures based on levels achieved by high-performing countries, states, hospitals and health plans.