How To Use This Site - The Commonwealth Fund

How to Use This Web Site

Browse by Performance Domain
Browse by Area of Interest
Browse by Collection (Sets of Related Snapshots)
Browse by Title (Alphabetical List of Snapshots)
Create a Custom Collection
Search by Keyword
Send us Feedback The basic building block of this Web site is a graph (or set of graphs) and related narrative on a discrete subject, such as childhood immunizations, displayed as a single "Performance Snapshot." The narrative describes the subject's importance, summarizes findings and implications, and offers suggestions for improvement.

Snapshots can be accessed in different ways. Use the left-hand navigation to browse an index of Snapshots listed alphabetically and in predefined collections, by performance domain, or by cross-cutting areas of interest across domains. Or search for specific subjects using keywords.

You can print or e-mail any Snapshot using buttons at the top of the page, and you can create your own custom collection of Snapshots to save or print.

Browse by Performance Domain
From the right-hand navigation, choose "Browse by Performance Domain." Then click on a particular domain to view all Snapshots (in alphabetical order by title) related to one of the six aims for improving the health care system articulated by the Institute of Medicine, or a seventh domain on quality improvement.

Effectiveness depicts whether health care services are underused or overused, that is, whether services are provided 1) appropriately based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit, or 2) inappropriately to those who are not likely to benefit and who might be harmed by them.
Patient Safety depicts medical mistakes, health care–associated infections, preventable adverse events and complications of care, and other system failures that can harm patients or have the potential to do so.
Access and Timeliness depicts whether people obtain needed care and whether there are unnecessary delays in getting that care.
Patient-Centeredness depicts whether health care establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients' wants, needs, and preferences and that patients (and their families when appropriate) have the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in care.
Efficiency depicts wasteful use of resources such as duplication of diagnostic tests. It also depicts studies showing that some providers use fewer resources to achieve similar or better outcomes.
Equity depicts whether health care quality varies by personal characteristics such as gender, race and ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status including income and education. NOTE: this domain will be added in a future update of the Performance Snapshots Web site.
Capacity to improve depicts examples of systematic quality improvement interventions that have been shown to help health care providers and care systems achieve one or more of the aims described above.

Browse by Area of Interest (Cross-Cutting Topics)

Type of Care

Preventive care refers to services such as immunizations to help people avoid illness and remain well, and screening such as mammograms to detect diseases at an early stage when treatment is often more successful.
Acute care refers to evaluation and treatment provided by doctors and hospitals, such as antibiotics for a strep throat infection or pneumonia, that help people recover from an illness or injury.
Chronic care refers to services such as education, medication, and monitoring to help people manage an ongoing, chronic condition like diabetes or a disability that affects their ability to function.
End-of-life care refers to services such as hospice and palliative care to help patients and their families deal with a terminal illness.
Long-term & post-acute care refers to health care services delivered in the home or in a nursing home or subacute care facility.

Type of Insurance

Medicare refers to the federal health insurance program for elderly and disabled individuals.
Medicaid refers to the joint federal–state health insurance program for low-income individuals and families.
Managed care plans include private and Medicaid health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and Medicare Advantage plans that measure and report on the quality of care delivered to an enrolled population.
Uninsured individuals are those without public or private health insurance coverage.

Age Group

Children means those ages birth to 10.
Adolescents means those ages 11–17.
Young adults means those ages 18–44.
Middle-age adults means those ages 45–64.
Elderly adults means those ages 65 and older.

Major Clinical Conditions

Infectious diseases (also known as communicable diseases) and related preventive services such as immunizations and screening. Immunization-preventable infectious diseases include diphtheria, Hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella (German measles), tetanus, and varicella (chicken pox). Sexually transmitted diseases represented on this Web site include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Chlamydia infection.
Cancers (also known as malignant neoplasms) and related preventive services such as smoking cessation counseling and screening services such as mammography for early detection and treatment.
Mental and behavioral disorders include mood disorders such as bipolar disorder and depression, anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), alcohol and drug abuse and dependence, and dementia such as Alzheimer's disease.
Cardiovascular diseases (also known as circulatory system diseases) and manifestations include cerebrovascular accidents (stroke), coronary heart disease, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure), a risk factor for heart attacks and stroke. This category also includes related preventive services, such as lifestyle and smoking cessation counseling and blood pressure testing, and procedures such as coronary artery bypass surgery. (Cholesterol testing and control are included for the same reason.)
Respiratory diseases include pneumonia, influenza, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and acute respiratory infections such as nasopharyngitis (common cold) and pharyngitis (throat infections).
Blood disorders such as iron-deficiency anemia and blood lead poisoning and related screening.
Diabetes and its complications such as diabetic ketoacidosis and diabetic eye and kidney disease.

Other

International Comparisons illustrate how health care quality in the United States compares with care in other other developed countries.
State Rates include all Snapshots that provide performance data or ranges for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Note: To keep the Web site simple, we have included only a limited number of major disease categories, but specific diseases can be searched for by keyword. Based on user feedback, we will consider adding additional disease categories of interest.

Browse by Collection (Sets of Related Snapshots)

Browse by Title (Alphabetical List of Snapshots)

Create a Custom Collection

As you view Snapshots, click the "Add to My Collection" buttons.
Choose "My Collection" from the right-hand box to view the full Web versions of the Snapshots in your collection. Choose "view summary only" to view summary versions of the Snapshots.
Choose "Create PDF" to generate a Portable Document File (PDF) to view in Adobe Acrobat Reader, or choose "Create PPT" to generate a PowerPoint file of your Snapshots collection. You can then save the PDF or PPT collection to your computer.
On Macs, "My Collection" works best in OpenOffice or Keynote.

Search by Keyword

Send Us Feedback

snapshots@cmwf.org.