Distinguishing health equity and health care equity: A framework for measurement

Amid a series of public health crises and social injustice tragedies, health equity has become a fundamental priority for policy makers and the entire health care industry. From government to professional associations and private companies, measuring health equity has been proposed as a first step toward ultimately closing gaps. To date, most efforts have been focused on stratifying existing quality and outcome measures by factors such as race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Although this stratification approach demonstrates disparities in existing quality measures, it is limited in that it does not shed light on the root causes of those observed disparities. We need valid tools to directly measure health care inequities and enable health care organizations to take action. (author abstract)