PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Frances Mortimer
AU  - Jennifer Isherwood
AU  - Alexander Wilkinson
AU  - Emma Vaux
TI  - Sustainability in quality improvement: redefining value
AID  - 10.7861/futurehosp.5-2-88
DP  - 2018 Jun 01
TA  - Future Healthcare Journal
PG  - 88--93
VI  - 5
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/5/2/88.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/5/2/88.full
SO  - Future Healthc J2018 Jun 01; 5
AB  - Sustainability can be considered a domain of quality in ­healthcare, extending the responsibility of health services to patients not just of today but of the future. The longer term ­perspective highlights the impacts of our healthcare system on our environment and communities and in turn back onto population health. A sustainable approach will therefore expand the healthcare definition of value to measure health outcomes against environmental and social impacts alongside financial costs. We set out a practical framework for including these new dimensions in an already well-defined model of quality improvement. This has the potential to harness the growing quality improvement movement to shape a more sustainable health service, while improving patient outcomes. Early experience suggests that the new model may also provide immediate ­benefits, including additional motivation for clinicians to engage in quality improvement, directing their efforts towards high value interventions and enabling capture and communication of a wider range of impacts on patients, staff and communities.