If you need emergency open-heart surgery, the United States is a great place to be. But if you’ve got diabetes, you’re better off in many other countries. The United States is second to none at complicated, high-tech interventions—but it falls short in many other dimensions. It spends twice as much on health care as other rich countries yet leaves millions of Americans uninsured. It’s a nation founded on the notion of equality—but poor Americans get worse care than the rich do. In this lesson, you’ll learn how the ideal US health care system matches up with the reality. You’ll also learn to use online tools to find out how your local hospital or health care system is performing
Estimated Time of Completion: 20 minutes
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
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1. List examples of the need and opportunity for change in health care in the US.
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2. Describe the current state of quality, including cost and equity, in the US health care system.
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3. Compare the US health care system to those of other countries with respect to quality, equity, and cost.
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4. Use existing search tools to conduct a simple query on the quality and safety of your own hospital or health care system.
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You must be a registered IHI.org user
to take this lesson.
You must achieve a minimum score of
75% to successfully complete this lesson.