Improving Team Care for Patients with Cleft Lip and Alveolus: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Craniofacial Anomaly Management
• Interdisciplinary Team Care

Background:

• Children with cleft lip with or without cleft alveolus (CL±A) require coordinated interdisciplinary team visits.
• Access, scheduling, and completion of these visits can be challenging.
• Optimizing care delivery is crucial for managing CL±A.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance access, scheduling, and completion of interdisciplinary team visits for pediatric patients with CL±A.
• To implement a quality improvement initiative using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Model for Improvement.
• To increase the proportion of children with CL±A receiving timely cleft team care.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Model for Improvement at a large pediatric academic medical center.
• Implemented interventions focused on parent/team education, scheduling procedures, and customized team visits.
• Expanded patient education materials and increased nursing engagement in care dissemination.

Main Results:

• The proportion of children with CL±A receiving their first cleft team visit before age 2 increased from 30% to 77%.
• The frequency of missed team visits decreased, improving from an average of every 20 days to every 76 days.
• Demonstrated significant improvements in timely access to interdisciplinary care for CL±A patients.

Conclusions:

• Targeted quality improvement interventions effectively enhance access, scheduling, and completion of interdisciplinary team visits.
• Improvements in education, access, and coordination reliably increase rates of timely care for children with CL±A.
• This initiative highlights a successful model for optimizing craniofacial team care delivery.