Six ways to improve the health care system
In its report "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century," a committee of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies proposes six aims for improvement to address key dimensions in which today’s health care system functions at far lower levels than it can and should.
The report says health care should be:
- Safe — avoiding injuries to the patient from the care that is intended to help him or her.
- Effective — providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and overuse, respectively).
- Patient-centered — providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
- Timely — reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care.
- Efficient — avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.
- Equitable — providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status.
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