In 2002, 13 health care organizations, seven US and six European organizations, set out to "pursue perfection," with funding for the seven US organizations from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As part of the Pursuing Perfection initiative, their aim is to raise the bar — dramatically improve results for patients beyond the best known in health care today. This ambitious goal, when achieved, will show just how much better health care can be for patients, for providers, and for the community. The lessons are valuable for all health care organizations. Identifying the best known performance — the bar — and then improving care to exceed this is the challenge.

Raising the Bar has five steps:

1. Establish the will to go beyond “we are doing OK” performance
2. Set aims that raise the bar, reaching beyond what has been achieved in health care thus far
3. Measure performance at this higher level
4. Develop and test the type of changes that can bring an organization to a new level of performance
5. Learn from the changes in ways that benefit the entire organization

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