Abstract
In the years since the To Err is Human report [1] came out, health care has increasingly focused on improving the quality of the care we provide while mitigating unintentional harm. Improving quality of care and patient safety is now a mantra for health care delivery around the world. Examples of these efforts include the World Health Organization Patient Safety Programme, which aims to coordinate, disseminate, and accelerate improvements in patient safety, outlining 13 action areas to target important global health care issues [2]. International accreditation bodies like The Joint Commission have strengthened their standards, with measures such as the National Patient Safety Goals becoming a mandatory core requirement [3]. Payment policies also reflect this push for quality improvement, with payers like the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) withholding reimbursement for certain complications and outcomes of hospital-based care [4, 5]. Despite substantial efforts by a variety of stakeholders over the last decade and a half, there is limited evidence of all-encompassing progress, in which some patient harms have significantly decreased while quality gaps have unfortunately caused others to rise [6, 7].
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Surgical Intensive Care Medicine, Third Edition |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Pages | 861-871 |
Number of pages | 11 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783319196688 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783319196671 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |