The single most valuable governmental agency is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
AHRQ’s latest published research is the report on health care quality in all 50 states and DC. Measurements of over 100 indicators in 14 areas, the report indicates how each state compares in each area to national averages. AHRQ has tried to prevent interstate comparisons by releasing 50 separate reports, an indication of the agency’s desire to focus not on ranking each state but on identifying areas each state can improve upon.
Indicators included nursing home quality, percentage of seniors who receive flu shots (interesting metric given last year’s flu vaccine debacle), kidney dialysis effectiveness, suicide rates, counseling for medicare recipients who smoke on smoking cessation, and others. It will come as no surprise that no single state came out well in all metrics. In fact, there is remarkable inconsistency within states. Illinois is an example; according to the Chicago Tribune; “
Apr
7
