Exploring quality of care for African Americans

The continuous health disparities for African Americans when compared with Caucasians raise the question of whether health care objectives designed for African Americans actually address their needs and wants. To explore quality-of-care dimensions from the African American perspective, a combined focus group and modified Delphi approach were used. Three quality-of-care dimensions (patient, provider, and setting roles) were deduced from the data. Qualitative thematic narratives were abstracted. Because African Americans emphasized processes of care, their health outcomes may improve if process factors are judged as important as those of input and outcome in an adapted quality-of-care framework.