Publications & Documents

Universal Health Coverage

Universal Health Coverage is about everyone having access to good quality health services without suffering financial hardship. Although most OECD countries offer all their citizens affordable access to a comprehensive package of health services, they face challenges in sustaining and enhancing such universal systems.

Healthcare Quality and Outcomes Indicators

Healthcare quality is a core dimension of health system performance. The Healthcare Quality and Outcomes programme aims to develop and report indicators for international comparisons of healthcare quality.

Healthcare Quality and Outcomes

Providing patients with care that is safe, effective and responsive to patient needs is now recognised as the foremost objective of health systems in all OECD countries. We measure quality of care and help governments identify the drivers of high-quality care as the cornerstone of quality improvement.

Integrated Care

Across OECD countries, aging populations and increasing numbers of people with chronic diseases shift the focus of health care services away from acute care addressing longer episodes of health care needs. In recent decades, OECD countries have introduced integrated care initiatives aimed at ensuring individuals receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Waiting Times

Long waiting times for health services have been an important policy issue in most OECD countries for many years. The COVID-19 outbreak is likely to result in at least some temporary increases in waiting times for non-urgent services in all the OECD countries that have been hard hit.

Hospital performance

Hospitals are important targets in national efforts to improve health system performance. The OECD currently collects a number of acute care measures of hospital performance on a national level, such as the mortality rate within 30 days of patients being admitted to hospital after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Several effective strategies to lower AMI mortality rates in OECD countries have been identified.

Long-term care workforce: caring for the ageing population with dignity

The OECD examines barriers to and policy options for promoting a stronger LTC workforce. Some of the themes analysed include education and training, recruitment and retention, productivity and use of technology, coordination between social and health workers, and coordination between formal and informal workers.

Ageing and Long-term Care

With populations in OECD countries ageing, more people are living with long-term care needs. The OECD Health Division has an ongoing programme of work to support countries in developing long-term care systems that can meet the needs of their populations now and in the future.

Digitalisation of health systems can significantly improve performance and outcomes

Health systems in the OECD are under renewed financial pressure, owing to competing priorities for public funding, according to a new OECD report. The 2023 edition of OECD Health at a Glance estimates that healthcare spending in OECD countries corresponded to 9.2% of GDP in 2022, down from 9.7% in 2021. While this exceeds the 2019 levels, in 11 OECD countries, health spending as a share of GDP in 2022 was lower than in 2019.

Health at a Glance 2023 - OECD Indicators