Components of Health Care Access

Access to health care means having "the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes."¹ Attaining good access to care requires three discrete steps:

• Gaining entry into the health care system.
• Getting access to sites of care where patients can receive needed services.
• Finding providers who meet the needs of individual patients and with whom patients can develop a relationship based on mutual communication and trust.²

Health care access is measured in several ways including:

• Structural measures of the presence or absence of specific resources that facilitate health care, such as having health insurance or a usual source of care.
• Assessments by patients of how easily they are able to gain access to health care.
• Utilization measures of the ultimate outcome of good access to care—i.e., the successful receipt of needed services.

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