Book chapter
Timeliness of Care
The Patient and Health Care System: Perspectives on High-Quality Care, pp.109-122
Springer International Publishing
2020
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-46567-4_9
Abstract
Timeliness of care is defined by the National Academy of Medicine as “reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care”. Whether the lack of timeliness occurs in the evaluation or the treatment phase of health care, either can lead to adverse outcomes. Delays in care can further be contextualized into delays of emergent, urgent, acute, subacute, and chronic care with timeliness measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, depending on the urgency of the medical condition (Table. The Spectrum of Timeliness). The first step to timely care is access to health care. Once health care is accessed, health care providers and the systems they work in need to evaluate and treat their patients in a timely fashion. In this chapter, we look at issues revolving around the timely access to health care in both the acute and chronic care settings. We then examine the effect of timely care on patients, providers, and the health care system. Finally, we look at best practices in timely care as well as consider future directions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Timeliness of Care
- Creators
- Stephen J. Harder - The University of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterEugene S. Chu - The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Contributors
- Pranavi V. Sreeramoju (Editor)Stephen G. Weber (Editor)Alexis A. Snyder (Editor)Lynne M. Kirk (Editor)William G. Reed (Editor)Beverly A. Hardy-Decuir (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- The Patient and Health Care System: Perspectives on High-Quality Care, pp.109-122
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing; Cham
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-46567-4_9
- Number of pages
- 14
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2020
- Academic Unit
- General Internal Medicine; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984771650802771
Metrics
1 Record Views