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Facilitating Clinical Quality Improvement in Safety-Net Clinics
Clinical Quality Improvement (CQI) is integral to many national efforts, including Public Health Accreditation, Patient-Centered Medical Home Certification and the movement towards "Accountable Care" in health reform. This presentation will provide health departments and clinics with instructions on how to facilitate CQI efforts around clinical preventive services. The goal is to provide participants with the tools and resources needed to conduct a CQI project, address barriers and challenges and assist with the implementation of CQI projects at their area clinics.
Project Information
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) has been awarded a grant by First 5 LA to reduce childhood obesity by increasing parents’ knowledge of healthy behaviors, improving diet and increasing physical activity. One of the project goals is to improve childhood obesity screening and management in clinical settings by formalizing practice protocols to include: 1) routine weight assessment and tracking, 2) obesity-related education, 3) appropriate management, and 4) referrals to community-based resources.
LACDPH has been working with safety-net clinics to formalize obesity screening and management protocols the goal is to expand the project to a reach a total of 30 clinics. This project has been designed as a clinical quality improvement program that: 1) recruits clinics and partners with key clinical leaders, 2) aligns quality improvement effort with other organizational change efforts, 3) establishes a protocol based on national guidelines that is specific to the clinic, 4) facilitates use of the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) model to establish effective practices, and 5) revises protocols based on PDSA results.
Participating safety-net clinics have improved obesity screening and management and learned how to perform CQI, a skill that can be applied to other clinical topics. Tools to facilitate each CQI step have been developed, challenges identified and addressed, and research/evaluation needs identified.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsAdministration, management, leadership
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the evidence of how Clinical Quality Improvement (CQI) improves quality of care for patients.
Describe the process of a CQI project.
Discuss the challenges and barriers with the implementation of a CQI project.
Keyword(s): Quality Improvement
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am currently co-investigator for the Los Angeles Department of Public Health on a grant to facilitate clinical quality improvement in safety-net clinics. I have worked as both a clinician and a research on large scale research projects at Columbia University Medical Center in the Department of Preventive Medicine. I am also in the process of completing my doctoral work at Columbia University. This project is the center of my dissertation work.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.