Institute of Medicine framework for healthcare quality.4
| Aims for Improvement | Definition |
|---|---|
| Safe | Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them. |
| Timely | Reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care. |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| 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. |
The 6 domains are available online21: Six Domains of Health Care Quality. Content last reviewed November 2018. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://www.ahrq.gov/talkingquality/measures/six-domains.html