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Asthma Care Quality Improvement

A Resource Guide for State Action


The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as part of its mission to translate research into practice and improve health care quality, develops products to assist State officials who aim to improve asthma care in their States. Two of these resources, published in 2003, are:

  • Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action (designed in partnership with the Council of State Governments to help States assess the quality of asthma care and create quality improvement strategies)
  • Asthma Care Quality Improvement A Workbook for State Action (companion workbook)

AHRQ has also developed an Asthma Return-on-Investment Calculator to help determine the potential cost savings of an asthma quality improvement program.

After a user questioned the estimates for her State's spending on asthma, the methods used to derive these estimates were checked. Errors were found that affected estimates for all States. Corrections have been made to Tables 1.3 and 1.4 and to all tables in Appendix B in Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action. Additional updates to the text and data were made in July 2009.

Select for print version (PDF File, 1.7 MB). Plugin Software Help.


By Rosanna M. Coffey, Ph.D., Karen Ho, M.H.S., David M. Adamson, Ph.D., Trudi L. Matthews, M.A., Jenny Sewell, and Cheryl A. Kassed, Ph.D.

Contents

Foreword
Summary
Introduction
Module 1: Making the Case for Asthma Care Quality Improvement
   The Need for Asthma Care Quality Improvement
   The Quality Improvement Opportunity
   Estimating the Costs of Asthma Care and Potential Savings From Quality Improvement
Module 2: A Framework for State-Led Quality Improvement
   Quality Health Care and the Quality Improvement Movement
   A Strategic Role for States
   Developing a Framework for State-Led Quality Improvement
   Information Resources for Quality Improvement
Module 3: Learning From Current State Quality Improvement Efforts
   Current State Efforts To Improve the Quality of Asthma Care
Module 4: Measuring Quality of Care for Asthma
   Quality Measurement
   Multiple Dimensions of Quality for Asthma Care
   Data Sources for Asthma Quality of Care
   Using Benchmarks To Develop State Performance Estimates
   Factors That Affect Quality of Asthma Care
Module 5: Moving Ahead—Implications for State Action
References
Acknowledgments
Asthma Steering Committee
Appendixes:
A. Acronyms Used in This Resource Guide
B. Medicaid Spending on Asthma by State
C. National and State Asthma Programs
D. Asthma Measures
E. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Measures, Data, and Benchmarks
F. Other Asthma-Related Data Sources
G. Benchmarks from the National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR)
H. Information on Statistical Significance

Revised as of September 2009
AHRQ Publication No. 06(09)-0012


Internet Citation:

Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action. AHRQ Publication No. 06(09)-0012, September 2009. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/asthmacare/


 

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