Hospital care must be Quality Care, which means safe care. Safe care means that patients do not experience adverse events while in the hospital, such as falls, pressure ulcers, pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line infections, and other infections. These events are considered to be related to the quality of nursing care provided and are called Nursing Sensitive Quality Indicators.

Quality of care is linked to reimbursement by insurers such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). Under the CMS Value-Based Purchasing Program, hospitals that do not meet quality benchmarks may face financial penalties. Under the Readmissions Reduction Program, hospitals whose 30-day readmission rates are too high may also be penalized. It is not enough for hospitals to just deliver care; we must deliver Quality Care. Your unit will have Quality Boards that display how your unit is doing on these indicators. Become familiar with them.