IOM's 6 Aims: Enhancing Healthcare Quality in the US - Essay Sample

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) refers to a sovereign nonprofit organization that provides health-related advice to the public. It also helps in guiding healthcare decision-makers. This essay assesses IOM’s six aims for improving healthcare quality, provides examples of how effectiveness can be achieved and defines quality as it applies to healthcare in the U.S.

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IOM’s purposes include enhancing healthcare quality, safety, timeliness, effectiveness, equity, and patient-centeredness. Effectiveness in health care practice gets achieved by following an evidence-based practice (Hughes et al., 2008). Equity focuses on offering impartial care to all. Timeliness aims at the prompt achievement of the needed results. Patient centeredness ensures that patients and their families get involved in his or her healthcare decision-making processes. Efficiency is IOM’s sixth goal; it ensures that resources get utilized cost-effectively.

Effectiveness is a critical IOM aim that utilizes evidence-based practices, clinical expertise, and upholds patient values to attain the best possible results. Strategies utilized in achieving effective healthcare delivery include practice guidelines that lower variability in healthcare (Beattie et al., 2013). For instance, guidelines have been established towards the treatment of critically ill children.

Effectiveness focuses on enhancing healthcare processes, which lowers the chances of failure or redundancy. Effectiveness entails ensuring that healthcare systems shift to perform based on data-driven science, therefore, averting a narrative-driven approach. It gets evidenced in infection control practices and policies since it creates a reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable healthcare process (Wilson, 2019). Infection control practices benefit the patient and the community by eliminating or limiting the spread of infections and improving healthcare practices. In my opinion, quality healthcare in the United States refers to structures that foster a professional and competent patient and medical practitioner’s relationship towards improving the patient’s well-being.

The quality of healthcare is determined by the extent health care practitioners offer services that provide desired health outcomes. However, it also entails adhering to the six IOM’s objectives. Effectiveness is the most critical objective in enhancing patient care. It is achieved by offering healthcare services based on scientific knowledge and evidence-based guidelines.

References

Beattie, M., Shepherd, A., & Howieson, B. (2013). Do the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) dimensions of quality capture the current meaning of quality in health care?–An integrative review. Journal of Research in Nursing, 18(4), 288-304. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1744987112440568

Hughes, R. G., Hughes, R. G., Mitchell, P. H., Donaldson, M. S., Wakefield, M. K., Henriksen, K., & Benner, P. (2008). Patient safety and quality. An evidence-based handbook fornurses. Agency for health research and quality.

Saunders, H., & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, K. (2016). The state of readiness for the evidence-based practice among nurses: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 56, 128-140. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020748915003351