The National Strategy For Quality Improvement In Health Care

The National Quality Strategy was first published in March 2011 as the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, and is led by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the National Quality Strategy was developed through a transparent and collaborative process with input from a range of stakeholders. More than 300 groups, organizations, and individuals, representing all sectors of the health care industry and the general public, provided comments. Based on this input, the National Quality Strategy established a set of three overarching aims that builds on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's

These aims will be used to guide and assess local, State, and national efforts to improve health and the quality of health care. The aims are better care (improve the overall quality, by making health care more patient-centered, reliable, accessible, and safe), healthy people/healthy communities (improve the health of the U.S. population by supporting proven interventions to address behavioral, social and, environmental determinants of health in addition to delivering higher-quality care) and affordable care (reduce the cost of quality health care for individuals, families, employers, and government) (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, September

The long term goals for making care safer by reducing harm caused in the delivery of care include reduce preventable hospital admissions and readmissions, reduce the incidence of adverse health care-associated conditions and reduce harm from inappropriate or unnecessary care. The long term goals for ensuring that each person and family members are engaged as partners in their care include improve patient, family, and caregiver experience of care related to quality, safety, and access across settings, in partnership with patients, families, and caregivers—and using a shared decision making process—develop culturally sensitive and understandable care plans and enable patients and their families and caregivers to navigate, coordinate, and manage their care appropriately and effectively. Promoting effective communication and coordination of care include improve the quality of care transitions and communications across care settings, improve the quality of life for patients with chronic illness and disability by following a current care plan that anticipates and addresses pain and symptom management, psychosocial needs, and functional status and establish shared accountability and integration of communities and health care systems to improve quality of care and reduce health