Health care quality improvement in Mexico: challenges, opportunities, and progress.

From the Undersecretary of Health, Mexico City, Mexico. Corresponding author: Enrique Ruelas, MD, Undersecretary for Innovation and Quality, Secretary of Health of Mexico, Lieja 7, 1er. piso, Col. Juarez 06696, Mexico D.F. vey respondents rated quality as the major health care problem, followed by insufficient resources (30%), limited access (11%), and high costs (9%) (1). Interestingly, when the survey was redone in 2000, cost exceeded quality as the major problem cited due to the economic problems the country faced in 1995. Nevertheless, with cost related to access, quality remains the number one issue when it comes to provision of health care services. Further, when 1304 citizens were asked if various public services were good or excellent, only 37% gave these ratings to health services. Health services received ratings higher than only one other department, police; ratings were lower than those of pub50 States