Published as part of CHCF's California Health Care Almanac, this report presents quality of care data in California by selected clinical areas and patient conditions. The state has improved on several measures: infant mortality, childhood obesity, and deaths from heart conditions and pneumonia. California compares favorably to the nation on cancer incidence and mortality, and adult prevalence of common chronic conditions. However, the state struggles to ensure that quality of care is consistent across racial and ethnic groups.

Key findings include:

• In California and the United States, high rates of cesarean deliveries and maternal mortality raise concerns about the quality of care delivered to pregnant women.
• Significant racial and ethnic disparities persist for maternal and infant mortality, with much higher death rates for African American mothers and infants than for Whites, Latinos, and Asians, although the gap between African Americans and Whites has narrowed over the last few years.
• After years of concern about the rising rates of obesity in children, recent data show a leveling off in the prevalence of overweight and obese children in California, with rates for all racial and ethnic groups dropping from 2005 to 2010.
• California has lower mortality rates than the nation for cancer overall and for the four most prevalent cancers: breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate.

A companion report, Room for Improvement: Quality in Settings of Care, provides quality of care data for California hospitals, nursing homes, home health, and end-of-life care, and is available through CHCF Related Pages below. 

The complete report, as well as the 2011 edition, is available under Document Downloads.