The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Crossing the Quality Chasm identified six fundamental aims for health care—that it be safe, effective, patient-centered, efficient, equitable, and timely. Of these fundamental aims, timeliness is in some ways the least well studied and understood. How can timely care be ensured in various health care settings, and what are some of the reasons that care is sometimes not timely? The report presented here was developed by the IOM Committee on Optimizing Scheduling in Health Care to answer such questions.
Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access: Getting to Now
