US Pharm. 2011;36(11):16.

New York, NY — According to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, the U.S. scored 64 out of 100 on key performance measures. Despite pockets of improvement, the country as a whole failed to improve compared with best performers here as well as with other nations. The 2011 report measured the U.S. health care system across 42 indicators of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. Average performance was compared with rates achieved by the top 10% of U.S. states, regions, health plans, hospitals, or other providers or top-performing countries. The 2011 score was slightly below the overall scores from the 2008 and 2006 reports. The U.S. is failing to keep up with gains in health outcomes made by other countries, ranking last out of 16 countries for deaths that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical care.

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