Bridging vs Filling in US Health Care Quality—Beyond the Chasm

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2026

Journal Title

Journal of the American Medical Association

ISSN

0098-7484

DOI

10.1001/jama.2026.4353

Abstract

Twenty-five years ago, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) issued Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, articulating a vision for US health care that would be safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient centered.1 The report, paired with its predecessor To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, represented US medicine at its most self-critical—acknowledging that the chasm between the care we have and the care we could have was vast, dangerous, and morally unacceptable. The metaphor was deliberately chosen: a chasm is not a gap to be incrementally narrowed but an abyss requiring a bridge to reach the other side.

First Page

1657

Last Page

1658

Num Pages

2

Volume Number

335

Issue Number

19

Publisher

American Medical Association

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS