title: Tomorrow's challenges - today's realities making the leap, 2002 Ryley-Jeffs Memorial Lecture.
abstract: The premise of the presentation is a challenge to health care providers to examine the quality of services currently provided in health care facilities across the country. While the Canadian health care system is under scrutiny with numerous reviews and commissions, the underlying question is: are the structural changes making a difference? We need to consider the recommendations in the latest report from the Institute of Medicine, Crossing the Quality Chasm. The report calls for a sweeping redesign and suggests a set often new rules to guide patient/clinician relationships. Dietitians must take the lead on implementation of systematic changes, model the way and get involved in the necessary changes. As the report suggests, the gap between where we are and where we need to go in providing quality health care services is not just a crack, it is in fact a chasm.
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011787:Quality of Health Care