Improving the Quality of Health
Care
Maggie Gilligan, RD, CSG, LDN
In Crossing the Quality Chasm,
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) put forth an agenda for meeting the six aims
for improving the quality of health care—safe, effective, patient-centered, timely,
efficient, and equitable.
One important component of a successful program for providers of care
is to create an environment that fosters and rewards improvement by1:
· Creating an infrastructure to support
evidence-based practice
· Facilitating the use of information technology
· Aligning payment incentives
· Preparing the workforce to better serve patients
in a world of expanding knowledge and rapid change
While the approach is sound, “the strategies have failed, in part,
because there has not been a ‘business case for quality’ in health care.”2
We currently see quality measures used as a method to look at the quality and
efficiency of health care outcomes. Abundant evidence shows that serious and
extensive quality problems exist throughout medicine in the United States,
which results in harm to many Americans.3
Key components to address should include:
· Ensuring the availability of information, so that
providers of care can make well-informed decisions
· Developing protocols that support evidence-based
practices
· Creating guidelines and best practices based upon
scientific evaluation and continuous improvement of these practices and
guidelines
As dietitians, we need to have an awareness of the
focus/goal of the IOM and address it in our individual practice settings.
References
1.Institute of Medicine, Committee on Quality of
Health Care in America. Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the
21st century. Available at: http://www.nap.edu/nap-cgi/report.cgi?record_id=10027&;type=pdfxsum. Accessed August 22, 2012.
2.Coye MJ. No Toyotas in health care: why medical care
has not evolved to meet patient’s needs. Health
Affairs. 2001;20:44-56.
3.Institute of Medicine. To Err Is
Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academy
Press; 2000.