STEEEP
In March, 2001, the Institute of Medicine released, "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century." The report provided a list of performance characteristics that would lead to the continued reduction of the burden of illness, injury and disability and improve the health and functioning of the people of the United States. The committee proposed six specific aims for improvement:
Safe—avoiding injuries to patients from the care that is intended to help them;
Timely—reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care;
Effective—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);
Efficient—avoiding waste, in particular waste of equipment, supplies, ideas and energy;
Equitable—providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographic location and socioeconomic status; and
Patient-centered—providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient references, needs and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
These six aims are referred to as STEEEP. HPOE's fundamental principles support STEEEP.
