Quality and Safety: Learning from the Past and (Re)Imagining the Future

Optimal quality within health care is no longer narrowly focused on preventing harm and has evolved to include the attainment of best outcomes through an understanding of the features attributed to effectively delivering care in complex work environments. The use of the electronic health record has contributed greatly to creating a repository of data that can be leveraged to comprehend the details associated with health care delivery. Medical knowledge alone is no longer sufficient to guarantee safe care or ensure the best outcomes. Clinicians who wish to achieve successful outcomes in the future must partner with their organizations to invest in appropriate infrastructure, anticipate increased accountability, manage an ever-increasing volume of data, and commit to learning how they must both change in order to succeed.