Improving Pediatric Asthma Care and Outcomes Across Multiple Hospitals

Gaps exist in inpatient asthma care. Our aims were to assess the impact of an evidence-based care process model (EB-CPM) 5 years after implementation at Primary Children's Hospital (PCH), a tertiary care facility, and after its dissemination to 7 community hospitals.

Participants included asthmatics 2 to 17 years admitted at 8 hospitals between 2003 and 2013. The EB-CPM was implemented at PCH between January 2008 and March 2009, then disseminated to 7 community hospitals between January and June 2011. We measured compliance using a composite score (CS) for 8 quality measures. Outcomes were compared between preimplementation and postimplementation periods. Confounding was addressed through multivariable regression analyses.

At PCH, the CS increased and remained at >90% for 5 years after implementation. We observed sustained reductions in asthma readmissions (P = .026) and length of stay (P < .001), a trend toward reduced costs (P = .094), and no change in hospital resource use, ICU transfers, or deaths. The CS also increased at the 7 community hospitals, reaching 80% to 90% and persisting >2 years after dissemination, with a slight but not significant readmission reduction (P = .119), a significant reduction in length of stay (P < .001) and cost (P = .053), a slight increase in hospital resource use (P = .032), and no change in ICU transfers or deaths.

Our intervention resulted in sustained, long-term improvement in asthma care and outcomes at the tertiary care hospital and successful dissemination to community hospitals.