This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (6)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Health Policy  • Medical Practice, Other  • Quality of Care  • Quality of Care, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Thomas F. Boat, MD; Samantha M. Chao, MPH; Paul H. O’Neill, MPA

JAMA. 2008;299(5):568-571.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The United States ranks among the worst of industrialized countries for indicators of health such as infant mortality and life expectancy,¹ despite spending $2 trillion annually on health care,² more than any other nation per capita. However, higher health care spending does not correlate with higher quality of care or better patient outcomes.^3-5 These sobering indicators suggest that an opportunity exists to close the value gap in the day-to-day delivery of health care by eliminating actions that impede optimal systematic performance, which result in less than perfect outcomes, extra work, or corrective work, otherwise described as waste.

Patient falls and decubitus ulcers represent waste in the form of "never events" that create more costs and result in systemic dissatisfaction. Waste is illegible and incomplete prescriptions that consume technician, nurse, and pharmacist time and, at worst, risk the life . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Mapping the Opportunity

Author Affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (Dr Boat); Board on Health Care Services, Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC (Ms Chao); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Mr O’Neill).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Implementation of the Enteral Nutrition Practice Recommendations
Brantley
Nutr Clin Pract 2009;24:335-343.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

It's time to focus on teaching the teachers for healthcare improvement
Stevens and Splaine
Qual Saf Health Care 2008;17:394-395.
FULL TEXT  

Publication guidelines for quality improvement in health care: evolution of the SQUIRE project
Davidoff et al.
Qual Saf Health Care 2008;17:i3-i9.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Health Is a Human Right, Right?
Braithwaite
Am. J. Public Health 2008;98:S5-S7.
FULL TEXT  

How do we know?
Stevens
Qual Saf Health Care 2008;17:154-155.
FULL TEXT