What is the Quadruple Aim – Four strategies for improving healthcare

Improving healthcare quality has been firmly on the U.S. healthcare system's radar since at least 1999, when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Several iterations later, the framework for making healthcare better settled in 2008 on three goas—improving the patient experience of care, improving population health, and reducing per capita cost, an approach developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), known as the "Triple Aim." Since then, this strategy, adopted widely by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and other institutions, has been augmented with an additional goal, improvement of the clinician experience, creating what is now commonly known as the "Quadruple Aim."

Four strategies focused on improving healthcare outcomes for all involved in care

This blog post is the first in our blog series based on the HealthStream ebook, The Quadruple Aim, that explores this effort to improve and reform the provision of U.S. healthcare.Its chapters, based on each of the four aims, include:

1. Enhancing the patient experience – Patient experience has become an important focus because patients are demanding better service and also want to be more involved in their own healthcare decision-making. At the same time, healthcare leaders understanding that better patient experience of care is strongly correlated with positive clinical outcomes and improved profitability.
2. Reducing costs – Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals and other healthcare organizations were operating on super-thin margins, in the vicinity of 3.5%, which were expected to be negative by 2025. The disastrous impact of the pandemic leaves the financial outlook for healthcare extremely bleak. It's no wonder that reducing costs has become such a healthcare imperative.
3. Improving healthcare outcomes – Despite the high cost of U.S. healthcare, we perform extremely poorly in terms of life expectancy, the suicide rate, chronic disease burden, obesity rate, and highest rate of avoidable deaths, to name just a few statistics among many that are regrettable. Clearly, there is room for improvement when it comes to improving healthcare outcomes in the U.S.
4. Improving the clinician experience – U.S. healthcare organizations are plagued by staff dissatisfaction, burnout, staff disconnection with leadership, and care providers who suffer from a loss of meaning in their work. Providers need to focus their efforts on assessing and prioritizing the clinician experience.

Download the Quadruple Aim ebook to learn more about each Aim and how HealthStream has mapped multiple solutions to each of these critical issues.

From solutions with a focus ranging from clinical development and reimbursement to quality and performance management, HealthStream is dedicated to improving patient outcomes through the development of healthcare organizations' greatest asset: their people.