The National Program for Quality Indicators in Community Healthcare aims to provide the public and policymakers with information on the quality of medical care provided by health plans (kupot cholim) in various fields, with the aim of improving the medical services provided to Israeli residents.
To achieve this goal, the program annually publishes national-level results for a series of quality indicators of community healthcare. This monitoring enables the assessment of trends in care quality over time and helps identify areas requiring intervention and improvement, both in information systems and data collection, as well as in the delivery of healthcare services.
Starting in 2023, a Health Disparities Report was published for the first time as part of the National Health Disparities Program. The report, which is based on data from 2021, presents trends in selected indicators by socioeconomic status and by district of residence.
The data presented here is made possible through the valuable collaboration of the four health plans (Kupot Cholim) and funding from the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research.
The program’s measures are divided into nine categories and are carefully selected, based on expertise and international literature, in consultation with clinical expert teams, and through consensus among health fund representatives in the program’s steering committee. The calculation of the measures undergoes rigorous internal and external quality control processes.
Click on the domain to view the measures:
The National Program for Quality Indicators for Community Medicine publishes data each year that allows for the examination of compliance with quality indicators in a particular year, as well as the assessment of gaps by gender, age, socioeconomic status, and region.
2024, a year of struggle that brings with it challenges and struggles for both medical teams and insured people. This year, negative and positive trends were observed in quality indicators.
The upward trend in adult obesity continued and worsening diabetes imbalances were observed. In addition, influenza vaccination rates among at-risk populations and the elderly remained low.
However, despite the many difficulties, a number of positive and encouraging trends were observed. There was an increase in cancer coverage and a reduction in social gaps, an improvement in the treatment rate after a hip fracture was reported, a continued increase in the treatment rate for diabetic patients with kidney damage, and an increase in cholesterol balance in heart disease patients was observed. All data is published on the website and can be viewed, and the main findings are summarized in the annual presentation.
The new data for 2024 includes follow-up data to the 2023 report and, for the first time, also data on the deployment of selected health services in the community.
The most notable findings:
סיקור לסרטן:
• Increase in mammography and colon cancer screening in Arab society and in the low socioeconomic status. Increase in cervical cancer screening in all strata and population groups.
• An increase in colonoscopy after a positive occult blood test , especially in the lowest socioeconomic stratum and in Arab and Haredi population groups.
Children and teenagers:
• Among toddlers, the highest rate of anemia is found in the ultra-Orthodox community, even after adjusting for the low performance of hemoglobin tests.
• Increased rates of obesity in 7-year-olds in the lowest socioeconomic stratum, with higher rates of both thinness and obesity in Arab society. In 14-15-year-olds, thinness is found mainly in the ultra-Orthodox society and obesity is prominent in Arab society.
• The incidence of diabetes in children has increased since 2020 in the lowest socioeconomic stratum and decreased in the highest stratum, with the highest diabetes rates found among children from Arab society.
• Increase in the rates of visits to the pediatric diabetes clinic among the weakest strata and among Arab society.
• A decrease in imbalance in all strata. However, the imbalance in the lowest socioeconomic status is 14 times higher than in the highest socioeconomic status, and 3.4 times higher among children from Arab society than in the general population.
Diabetes in adults:
• Diabetes rates in Arab society are 30% higher than those in the rest of the population.
• The rate of treatment with drugs from the SGLT-2 Inhibitors and/or GLP-1 Receptor Agonists family in diabetic patients aged 18-84 with kidney damage continues to increase in all population groups with minimal gaps between the different groups.
Service deployment
The distribution of health services per 100,000 residents is not uniform across districts and medical fields:
• The highest proportion of gastroenterologists is found around the central region and is consistent with performing colonoscopy after positive occult blood.
• The rate of mammography centers is higher in the north and south per 100,000 women aged 50-74, while the rate of colonoscopy centers is higher in the central region (per 100,000 residents aged 50-74).
• The highest rate of gynecologists was recorded in the Judea and Samaria, Kinneret, Golan and Tel Aviv governorates, and the lowest rate was recorded in the Ashkelon, Rehovot, Acre and Holon governorates.
• The highest rate of orthopedists per 100,000 residents was observed in the Tel Aviv, Kinneret, Golan and Haifa governorates, and the lowest rate was in the Jerusalem, Acre and Judea and Samaria governorates.
All data appears in the presentation and soon in the gap report.
The National Program for Quality Indicators in Community Healthcare publishes annual data that enables the examination of compliance with quality indicators for a given year, as well as an assessment of disparities by gender, age, socioeconomic status, and region.
Following the events of October 7th, and the Iron Swords War, starting in 2023, the production of the program’s indicators includes the Western Negev cluster as a separate region. The rates by residential district can be seen on the maps’ publications page or in the annual presentation.
In the near future, we will publish a Health Disparities Report for 2022-2023, which will examine changes in rates of performance on the measures over time, gaps by population group (Arab, Haredi, and other), and for the first time, a regional analysis including separate figures for the Gaza Envelope.
Selected quality indicators are presented in a geographical segmentation into 20 districts according to the insured’s residential address.
The maps can be viewed in various areas and by choice here.
