information for practice

One of the lessons learned from IHI and the pioneering study “Crossing the Quality Chasm” by the Institute of Medicine was the tremendous gap between best care and everyday care in hospitals and office practices, and the fundamental system changes that were needed to close this chasm. It occurred to us that the child abuse field could benefit by learning from many of the methodologies designed by the IHI and building them on to identified best practices in child abuse. We set out to engage some of the nation’s leaders in child abuse and asked their guidance in how the best thinking of both fields could be brought together. . . . We hope that this document will stimulate further collaboration between the healthcare and child abuse fields, and will accelerate the improvement of care provided so that, one day, every child in America who is the victim of abuse will receive the best treatment provided in the most effective way.