Overview
Why Healthcare Quality Is An Issue
A Broken System
Timeline
The Current State Of Affairs: Key Organizations In Healthcare Quality And Safety
Organizational Approaches To Improving Quality
Check Your Understanding
Incentives For Quality
Where Do We Go From Here? Vision For The Future
Summary
Summary

The US healthcare system excels in technological advances, but there are serious problem areas leading some to dub our industry as "broken". Three specific categories of problems have received the most attention:
  • Underuse of beneficial services
  • Overuse of procedures that are not medically necessary
  • Mistakes leading to patient injury

The science of quality improvement originated in industry as a process focused on identifying and correcting system problems to improve outcomes. Many healthcare advocates were early contributors to the quality movement and helped to define paradigms particular to healthcare organizations. Currently there are a broad range of organizations and agencies focused on improving healthcare quality in a variety of ways.

 
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Patient safety module series used with permission from Duke University
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