Letter from the Editor: Quality Health Care for Rural Residents

Abstract

What is quality in health care? In 1990 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) defined quality of care as the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge (Institute of Medicine, 2005, p.4) The Institute of Medicine (IOM) was established in the United States, in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. The Institute has had a long-standing focus on quality of care. In the first phase of the IOM quality initiative, the National Roundtable on Health Care Quality highlighted serious problems with the overall quality of care delivered in the United States. In the second phase, two reports, To ERR is Human: Building a safer Health System and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, were released. Both reports called for a fundamental redesign of the health care delivery system (Institute of Medicine, 2005).