The Department of Health and Human Services has released their National Healthcare Quality Report, which evaluates the quality of American health care based on data collected throughout 2008. This headline from the report sums it up:

Health Care Quality Is Suboptimal and Continues To Improve at a Slow Pace

No surprises here - except how little our health care system has improved considering how much more we pay for care every year. We're simply not getting our money's worth.

The report also cited our lack of focus on preventive care and chronic illness management as major contributors to the overall poor quality of care that patients receive in America.

The most worrisome section of the report dealt with the issue of patient safety. Americans should never have to worry that seeking health care will actually cause them harm, yet the study uncovered a widespread decline in patient safety that the report described as "disturbing." One study of adult Medicare patients found that, of those who received hospitalization, one in seven of them experienced some adverse event during their stay.

You can read the report in its entirety here: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhqr08/nhqr08.pdf