How does the quality of the American health system compare to other countries?

This collection of graphics compares the United States and other similar and rich nations through different measures of the quality of care to show how the United States compares itself to its peers and how it has changed over time.

Generally, the United States obtains fewer long-term health results measures (such as life expectancy), certain treatment results (such as maternal mortality and congestive admissions from the heart failure hospital), certain patient safety measures (such as obstetric trauma with instrument) and the capacity of the health system (such as the rate of practitioners). The United States behaves similarly or better than peer nations in other measures of treatment results (such as mortality rates within 30 days of acute hospital treatment) and certain patient safety measures (such as postoperative complications).

The collection of graphics is part of the Peterson-Kff health system, an online information center dedicated to monitoring and evaluation of the American health system.