We’re making efforts to improve patient care for American Indians, Alaska Natives

About 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Native people rely on the Indian Health Service for their health care needs. The leadership at IHS takes its obligation seriously. And any incident of patient harm at IHS is terrible. It is unfortunate that USA TODAY posted a series of articles focused on incidents that happened years ago.

IHS is invested in addressing longstanding challenges across the agency. In consultation with the tribes served by the agency, IHS developed the Office of Quality to strengthen quality improvement efforts. This new office will lead the way in continuing to build on improvements already made, such as standardizing patient wait times, im- plementing a centralized credentialing system, and monitoring the National Accountability Dashboard for Quality in order to make sustained improvements.

Improving and sustaining the culture of care throughout the Great Plains area, and all the areas we serve, is a top priority for IHS. The agency is committed to working with tribal leaders across the nation to accomplish this. Together, we are moving forward in delivering quality care to achieve the IHS mission to raise the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level.