Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Workbook for State Action

Module 3: Learning From Current State Quality Improvement Efforts

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of Module 3, the user(s) will be able to: Use the quality improvement framework to identify various national and State approaches to asthma care quality improvement. Many States have quality improvement programs that can be used or modified to serve as resources for informing State-specific quality improvement initiatives for asthma. Start an inventory of your State's quality improvement resources. Building on others' activities, identify those initiatives already underway in your State that might provide models, staff, or additional resources for a statewide improvement effort.

1.  Use the quality improvement framework to identify various national and State approaches to asthma care quality improvement.

Go to Current State Efforts To Improve the Quality of Asthma Care in the Resource Guide for examples of programs that reflect the three stages of the quality improvement framework: provide leadership, work in partnership, and implement improvement.

1. What leadership approaches of other States seem particularly relevant to your State? These might include identifying "champions" for asthma quality improvement as well as advisory bodies, workgroups, and coalitions to help pull the overall effort together.
   
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2. What types of State practices seem to offer the best opportunities for leveraging partnerships to advance asthma care quality improvement? What can you learn from States that have worked in partnership with others (within and outside health care settings) to develop and implement quality improvement plans, promote guidelines, or improve their ability to measure and monitor quality?
   
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3. Which State programs would be most useful as examples for implementing an asthma quality improvement effort? Are there specific categories of activities that seem most relevant to your State's quality improvement initiative (such as self-management, patient/public education, provider training, or disease management)?
   
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2. Start an inventory of your State's quality improvement programs and resources.

Review Appendix C in the Resource Guide for a list of over 100 asthma quality improvement programs in 12 areas and Web links for more information on each program.

1. Inventory your own State quality improvement activities related to asthma. Use the categories listed in Appendix C to organize your inventory. In the grid that follows, fill in what you know about groups in your State already assembled around asthma and asthma care; place a "X" if this activity is ongoing. If you know of other asthma-related activities that might not seem to fit within the categories listed below, jot them down in the lines after the inventory.

   Asthma-Related Quality Improvement Programs in Your State, by Type of Activity

   Type of activity	X	Name of program	Program contact
   Advisory bodies/councils/workgroups
   Coalitions (networks)
   Collaboratives
   Cross-agency work
   Data measurement and reporting
   Developing/enforcing guidelines
   Disease management
   Minority and rural outreach
   Public service/education efforts
   Self-management
   Provider training
   Use of technology

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2. Review your answers to questions 1a, 1b, and 1c above. Are there asthma-related activities for which you and your quality improvement team see a need but which do not appear in your inventory? Who might you contact to get more information on how to address this need?
   
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