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Healthcare quality

The following dimensions of healthcare are widely recognised and universally accepted as describing ‘quality’, they can be referred to as STEEEP to help you remember:

Safe: avoiding harm to patients from care that is intended to help them
Timely: reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays
Effective: providing services based on evidence and which produce a clear benefit
Efficient: avoiding unnecessary waste
Equitable: providing care that does not vary in quality because of a person’s characteristics
Person-Centred: establishing a partnership between practitioners and patients to ensure care respects patients’ needs and preferences

Institute of Medicine (IOM). Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press; 2001.