Provider Burnout and Patient Engagement: The Quadruple and Quintuple Aims

The Triple Aim has become the guiding light and benchmark by which healthcare organizations plan their future efforts. It has been adopted into healthcare policies with little regard for including the skill sets of compassion and emotional intelligence. The multiple increasing demands on providers of healthcare are unsustainable and will cripple the system, resulting in outcomes that are counter to the Triple Aim goals. Patient engagement with shared decision-making should become the primary focus of care delivery. New delivery models and care plans are unaffordable to far too many patients and payers, despite the efforts of futurists who seek to advance quality and lower costs. Clinical care delivery and patient engagement efforts must be drastically redirected to innovative and sustainable value-based delivery models that support the goals of the Triple Aim.