Health care seeks to diagnose, treat, and improve the physical and mental well-being of all Americans. Across the lifespan, health care helps people stay healthy, recover from illness, live with chronic disease or disability, and cope with death and dying. Quality health care delivers these services in a way that is safe, timely, patient centred, efficient, and equitable. Unfortunately, Americans too often do not receive care that they need, or they receive care that causes harm. This book examines the status of health care quality in the United States, targets where improvement is most needed, and explores how the quality of health care delivered to Americans is changing over time.