The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted the first national comprehensive means of measuring difference in access and use of health care services across diverse populations in the U.S. in 2004. The purpose of this report is to provide a ôbalanced summary of the state of disparities in the United Statesö (National, 2004, p. 1). For the purposes of this summary, the word disparity is defined by AHRQ as ôthe condition or fact of being unequal, as in age, rank, or degreeö (National, 2004, p. 2). While the summary revealed significant disparities in healthcare exist for many Americans and trends indicating the number of Americans who are vulnerable to suffering from the impact of healthcare disparities is expected to rise over the next fifty years, it also demonstrated ôimprovement is possibleö (National, 2004, p. 1). APNs can play a vital role with improvement efforts.
The AHRQ discovered seven key findings that point to both widespread disparities in healthcare across diverse populations in the U.S. as well as the fact that improvement is possible. The seven key findings of the AHRQ report are listed below:
Disparities come at a personal and societal price.
Differential access may lead to disparities in quality.
Opportunities to provide preventive care are frequently missed.
Knowledge of why disparities exist is limited.
Data limitations hinder targeted improvement efforts.
These findings have a variety of implications for their impact on the healthcare system. For example, inequality in quality for minority and poor populations make these populations, including many children, more vulnerable to late-stage diagnosis of cancer, more vulnerable to receiving less-than-optimal care, and more susceptible to hospital admission from lack of primary care. These disparities also impact
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