The Quintuple Aim for Health Care Improvement: A New Imperative to Advance Health Equity

This "viewpoint" (opinion) article was published onlne at jamanetwork.com 

#Key Passages

"The COVID-19 pandemic has brought long-overdue and much-needed attention to the lack of health equity in the US and around the world. Nearly everywhere, socially marginalized populations, including racial and ethnic minoritized groups,¹ older adults, and individuals living in poverty, experienced higher rates of COVID-19 and morbidity and mortality from infection, as well as greater disruptions to their preventive and chronic care. Although the reasons are myriad, the fact remains that these differences, which persisted long before the pandemic, are unacceptable and avoidable. The challenge now is translating this heightened social consciousness into action, particularly in communities, clinics, and health systems."

"It is tempting to argue that health equity is already covered in 2 of the aims, better experience of care and better health for populations. But neither is guaranteed unless health equity is made an explicit goal. Quality improvement efforts without a focus on disparity reduction may have limited effects on health disparities and in fact unintentionally worsen them."