Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

The Enhanced Recovery Program falls under the Division of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement, a division of the Department of Anesthesiology. The Department of Anesthesiology is proud to partner with colleagues in divisions throughout the hospital to streamline and improve the care of surgery patients at UNC. Learn more about the goals of PSQI below!

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

The Six Aims for Quality Improvement

1. Safety:

Avoiding Injuries to patients from the care that is intended to help them. Patients ought to be as safe in health care facilities as they are in their own homes.

2. Effectiveness:

Providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and overuse respectively). The health care system should match care to science, avoiding both overuse of ineffective care and underuse of effective care.

3. Patient-Centeredness:

Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preference, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions. Health care should honor the individual patient, respecting the patient’s choices, culture, social context, and specific needs.

4. Timeliness:

Care should continually reduce waiting times and delays for both patients and those who give care.

5. Efficiency:

The reduction of waste should be never-ending, including, for example, waste of supplies, equipment, space, capital, ideas, and human spirit.

6. Equity:

Providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics. The system should seek to close racial and ethnic gaps in the health status.