Health Status and Clinical Practice

In Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, the Institute of Medicine proposes 6 specific aims to improve the quality of care in the United States.1 These specific aims are to provide care that is safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable, and patient centered. Of these goals, patient-centered care has received the least attention from both the scientific community and practicing clinicians. Patient-centered care gives patients opportunities to be “involved in medical decision making,” and guides care providers “in attending to their patients’ physical and emotional needs, and maintaining or improving their quality of life.”1