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Learn more about Organizing Measures To Reduce Information Overload. Further, when measures are grouped into user-friendly versions of those three IOM domains, consumers can see the meaning of the measures more clearly and understand how they relate to their own concerns about their care. For example, when consumers are given a brief, understandable explanation of safe, effective, and patient-centered care, they view all three categories as important. Studies have shown that providing consumers with a framework for understanding quality helps them value a broader range of quality indicators. įrameworks like the IOM domains also make it easier for consumers to grasp the meaning and relevance of quality measures. Fewer measures focus on efficiency and equity of care, but attention to those domains has been growing. Some capture timeliness and patient-centeredness. The vast majority of measures assess effectiveness and safety. Equitable: Providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status.Įxisting measures address some domains more extensively than others.
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Efficient: Avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.Timely: Reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care.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.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 misuse, respectively).Safe: Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them.One of the most influential is the framework put forth by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which includes the following six aims for the healthcare system. A handful of analytic frameworks for quality assessment have guided measure development initiatives in the public and private sectors.
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