MINNEAPOLIS, March 27, 2008—According to Modern Healthcare, Minnesota and Wisconsin rank among the top states in overall health care quality.

The other top three states are North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.

They rated tops in the nation in "overall healthcare measure" in the annual report of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The findings are based on the AHRQ's National Healthcare Quality Report, which determined that quality and patient safety are slowly on the rise.

Each state, as well as Washington, D.C., was evaluated according to 149 measures of quality.

The website features a map of the United States that allows users to click on a state and discover how each state rated in the study.