Pediatricians' Participation in Quality Improvement at the Time of Enrollment in MOC

Although national bodies have proclaimed the importance of incorporating quality improvement (QI) into the daily fabric of clinical care, the actual proportion of practicing pediatricians who participate in QI activities on an annual basis is unknown. Correspondingly little is known about pediatrician motivations for, attitudes about, and support received for QI participation.

Pediatric diplomates enrolling in the American Board of Pediatrics' Maintenance of Certification program during calendar year 2016 were provided with the opportunity to complete a brief survey. A portion of the survey was focused on issues related to participation in QI programs.

Survey responses were received from 8714 of the 11 890 diplomates who enrolled in Maintenance of Certification in 2016 (response rate: 73.3%). Overall, 86.6% of respondents reported participation in at least 1 QI project in the previous year. There was variation in previous-year participation in a QI project by practice affiliation categories, ranging from 79.9% for nonacademic generalists to 92.4% for academic specialists. The extrinsic requirement for QI to maintain board certification was the dominant motivator among all respondents (50.7%), followed by 2 intrinsic factors: identify gaps in practice and implement change (40.3%) and opportunity to collaborate with others (36.9%).

Although the results are encouraging, despite almost 2 decades of national attention to the quality of health care and efforts to embed continual QI in health care delivery activities, ∼1 in 5 nonacademic pediatricians and 1 in 10 academic pediatricians did not report participating in any QI activities in the previous year.