In: Nursing
Define what quality healthcare means from the perspective of one or more of these groups: Providers, Patients & Family, Payers, Public Health, Political Players, Policy/Advocacy.
Quality in healthcare means providing the care the patient needs when the patient needs it, in an affordable, safe, effective manner. Quality healthcare also means engaging and involving the patient, so the patient takes ownership in preventive care and in the treatment of diagnosed conditions.
Patients
The Institute of Medicine defines health care quality as "the degree to which health care services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge."
In assessing the quality of the health system, we are naturally most interested in health as the ultimate outcome. However, how healthy people are and whether they are improving or declining over time can be affected by many factors other than healthcare, so using health as a measure of the quality of healthcare requires recognition of the other factors that contribute to well-being.