Citizen Brief
Quality of Health Care and Medical Care
Citizens4health vision
By 2026, 90 percent of clinical decisions will be supported by accurate, timely, and up-to-date clinical information, and will reflect the best available evidence.
Goal: The US is recognized as #1 in quality of health and medical care delivered at hospitals and outpatient settings
Help define health and medical care outcomes that are important to patients.
Hospital care that is 100% medical error-free
Quality healthcare can be defined as the extent to which patients get the care they need in a manner that most effectively protects or restores their health. This means having timely access to care, getting treatment that medical evidence has found to be effective. When it comes to hospitals, quality health care includes diagnosis and treatment along the continuum from the emergency room to discharge that leads to the best patient outcomes. Additionally, quality hospital care includes the post-hospital experience of thorough care coordination. Most importantly quality hospital care is safe for the patient.
What is quality health care?
Quality care based on the latest evidence for health care that is:
Safe: avoiding injuries 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 overuse, 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.
100% of the necessary care delivered in an evidence-based cost-effective manner
The Health of the Nation Measures:
1. How many Americans have experienced medical errors in the medical care that they received?
2. How often are established guidelines for effective healthcare for all population groups followed?
3. What is the rate of mortality for various healthcare conditions such as heart disease, cancer, lung, and neurological diseases?
4. Use of guidelines to provide guidance for medical decisions.
PA State of the State Report