Health Quality Alberta has released a renewed, evidence-based definition for healthcare quality, marking the first update to this important concept in nearly 20 years. The definition includes seven dimensions of quality: people-centred, accessible and timely, safe, equitable, integrated, effective, and efficient and sustainable.
The updated dimensions replace the definition of quality that was first introduced with the Alberta Quality Matrix for Health in 2005. Important changes include adding the dimensions of people-centred and equitable, for example, and expanding the meaning of ‘safe care’ to include all forms of safety – not just physical, but also cultural and data-related, to name just two.
“How we define quality healthcare is the very foundation of everything else we do in planning and delivering healthcare services,” says Dr. David Zygun, acting chief executive officer of Health Quality Alberta. “The definition of quality guides decision-making and delivery of care. When we agree on what quality care looks like, we are more likely to be aligned on how to fund, plan, measure, and deliver quality care across the system.”
The dimensions can be applied at system, organizational, and care-delivery levels, serving as a benchmark, informing policy, strategy, and design for the system, and giving organizations and teams a common language that shifts thinking and practice toward integrated people-centred care.
The dimensions act as a lens through which people’s experience in the healthcare system can be viewed. They guide the user in reflecting on people’s needs and how care should be experienced by people. Thinking about each dimension creates awareness of quality in service delivery and, when supplemented by measures, can reveal opportunities for system and quality improvement.
This update brings together input from system partners across Alberta, patient advisors, and communities, along with insights from leading frameworks in use within and beyond Alberta and Canada.
Download the new resource – Alberta Quality Dimensions for Health – here.