To achieve the goal of access to high-quality health services for all, a series of high-level actions are called for from each of the key constituencies that need to work together with a sense of urgency to enable the promise of the SDGs for better health care to be realized.
All governments should:
- have a national quality policy and strategy;
- demonstrate accountability for delivering a safe high-quality service;
- ensure that reforms driven by the goal of universal health coverage build quality into the foundation of their care systems;
- ensure that health systems have an infrastructure of information and information technology capable of measuring and reporting the quality of care;
- close the gap between actual and achievable performance in quality;
- strengthen the partnerships between health providers and health users that drive quality in care;
- establish and sustain a health professional workforce with the capacity and capability to meet the demands and needs of the population for high‑quality care;
- purchase, fund and commission based on the principle of value;
- finance quality improvement research.
All health systems should:
- implement evidence-based interventions that demonstrate improvement;
- benchmark against similar systems that are delivering best performance;
- ensure that all people with chronic disease are enabled to minimize its impact on the quality of their lives;
- promote the culture systems and practices that will reduce harm to patients;
- build resilience to enable prevention, detection and response to health security threats through focused attention on quality;
- put in place the infrastructure for learning;
- provide technical assistance and knowledge management for improvement.
All citizens and patients should:
- be empowered to actively engage in care to optimize their health status;
- play a leading role in the design of new models of care to meet the needs of the local community;
- be informed that it is their right to have access to care that meets achievable modern standards of quality;
- receive support, information and skills to manage their own long-term conditions.
All health care workers should:
- participate in quality measurement and improvement with their patients;
- embrace a practice philosophy of teamwork;
- see patients as partners in the delivery of care;
- promote the culture systems and practices that will reduce harm to patients;
- commit themselves to provide and using data to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of the care.
- put in place the infrastructure for learning;
- provide technical assistance and knowledge management for improvement.