Safe | Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them |
Effective | Providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and misuse, respectively) |
Patient centered | Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions |
Timely | Reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care |
Efficient | Avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy |
Equitable | Providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, geographical location and socioeconomic status |
Sometimes sustainability is added as another domain—looking not only at cost but also sustainable income streams and staff recruitment/retention.