Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2012
This second edition of Health at a Glance Asia/Pacific presents a set of key indicators of health status, the determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health care expenditure and financing and health care quality across 27 Asia/Pacific countries and economies.
Drawing on a wide range of data sources, it builds on the format used in previous editions of Health at a Glance, and gives readers a better understanding of the factors that affect the health of populations and the performance of health systems in these countries and economies.
Each of the indicators is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability. An annex provides additional information on the demographic context in which health systems operate.
Health care quality: Policy context and measurement
The measurement and improvement of quality of care has become a crucial element of health system governance worldwide. Industrialised and transition countries alike are developing ways to measure quality of care and improve policies, with reliable measurement seen as a necessary first step in establishing the value of health care, and thus the performance of health care systems (OECD, 2010a). Hence, Health System Performance Assessment, as promoted by WHO, relies heavily on the assessment of quality of health care services. A chapter on quality of care has been published in OECD’s Health at a Glance since 2007. The chapter on quality of care in this 2012 edition of Health at a Glace: Asia/Pacific is the first of its kind, and builds on the indicators used in OECD’s Health Care Quality Indicator programme.