What is the “Triple Aim” in healthcare?

The term “Triple Aim” refers to the simultaneous pursuit of improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care. Note that the Triple Aim is a single aim with three dimensions.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a nonprofit organization focused on motivating and building the desire for change among the provider healthcare community, partnering with patients and health care professionals to test new models of care, and ensuring the broadest adoption of best practices and effective innovations.

It is IHI’s belief that new designs must be developed to simultaneously pursue these three dimensions, which we call the “Triple Aim”: Improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction); improving the health of populations; and reducing the per capita cost of health care.