Improving Asthma Care by Building Statewide Quality Improvement Infrastructure

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Public Health Initiatives
• Clinical Practice Transformation

Background:

• Pediatric professionals seek sustainable quality improvement (QI) methods for healthcare delivery.
• Previous QI efforts often focused on single settings or limited coordinating entities.
• Need for scalable QI models to impact care across diverse practice environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance pediatric asthma care across multiple practice settings.
• To cultivate state-level expertise supporting multi-state QI projects.
• To implement and evaluate a statewide learning collaborative model for asthma management.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a multiwave approach with nested learning collaboratives.
• National leadership coached state chapter leadership teams, who then coached pediatric practices.
• Practices implemented asthma assessment tools, registries, and self-management strategies within a QI curriculum.

Main Results:

• Optimal asthma care improved significantly, rising from 42% to 81% over four waves.
• Physician-rated well-controlled asthma cases increased from 59% to 74%.
• Data dashboards and run charts facilitated monthly monitoring of process and outcome measures.

Conclusions:

• Statewide quality improvement learning collaboratives effectively support practice change.
• This model demonstrates a scalable approach to improving pediatric asthma care.
• Sustainable improvements in asthma management are achievable through collaborative, multi-site efforts.