Quality Care
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines quality as the “degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.”
Six Domains of Health Care Quality
- Safe: Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them.
- 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).
- 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.
Coined by Baylor Scott & White Health, STEEEP (Safe, Timely, Effective, Efficient, Equitable, and Patient-centered) is a handy acronym that reminds us of the six domains of health care quality.
The Need for Improvement
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In 2013, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report titled, "Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis." In that report, the committee concluded that the cancer care delivery system is in crisis due to a growing demand for cancer care, increasing complexity of treatment, a shrinking workforce, and rising costs. Changes across the board are urgently needed to improve the quality of cancer care. All stakeholders – including cancer care teams, patients and their families, researchers, quality metrics developers, and payers, as well as HHS, other federal agencies, and industries – must reevaluate their current roles and responsibilities in cancer care and work together to develop a higher quality cancer care delivery system. Working toward the recommendations outlined in this report, the cancer care community can improve the quality of life and outcomes for people facing a cancer diagnosis.
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Interprofessional Education (IPE)
“Interprofessional education occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. Once students understand how to work interprofessionally, they are ready to enter the workplace as a member of the collaborative practice team. This is a key step in moving health systems from fragmentation to a position of strength.”
Source: World Health Organization (WHO). (2010). Framework for action on
interprofessional education & collaborative practice. Geneva: World Health Organization.
interprofessional education & collaborative practice. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Developing and Sustaining an Effective and Resilient Oncology Careforce: Proceedings of a Workshop
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The landscape of cancer care is rapidly changing. The overall number of cancer survivors—both those undergoing active treatment and those who have completed treatment—is increasing more quickly than the number of clinicians available to care for them. The complexity of cancer care is also increasing, due to factors such as advances in cancer research and treatment; new payment models; widespread adoption of technologies in clinical practice with variable levels of usability, efficiency, and clinical burden; as well as patients and family caregivers shouldering more responsibilities related to cancer treatment and recovery. These challenges raise concerns about the U.S. health care system’s capacity to deliver high-quality cancer care in the coming years.
In February 2019, the National Cancer Policy Forum convened a workshop to examine opportunities to better support the oncology careforce—the health care professionals and family caregivers caring for people with cancer.This Proceedings of a Workshop highlights suggestions from individual participants to improve the delivery of high-quality cancer care by building and sustaining an effective and resilient oncology careforce. |
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The purpose of Q Synthesis LLC is to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and patient outcomes by promoting and facilitating individual and team-based professional development that is built upon a culture of continuous improvement.
