ABSTRACT
An American Academy of Pediatrics State Chapter organized a 6-month, mostly online quality improvement learning collaborative to improve antibiotic prescribing and patient education for upper respiratory infection (URI) and acute otitis media (AOM). Practices submitted data on quality measures at baseline, monthly, and 4 months post-project. Fifty-three clinicians from 6 independent, private primary care pediatric practices participated. Use of first-line antibiotics for AOM increased from 63.5% at baseline to 80.4% 4 months post-project. Use of safety-net antibiotic prescriptions (SNAP) for AOM increased from 4.5% to 16.9%. Educating patients about management for URI increased from 66.1% to 88.0% and for AOM from 20.4% to 85.6%. Practices maintained high performance for not prescribing antibiotics for URI (94.4% to 96.2%). Leveraging local relationships and national resources, this replicable antibiotic stewardship project engaged independent private practices to improve patient education for URI and AOM and prescribing and use of SNAP for AOM.
Subject(s)
Antimicrobial Stewardship/methods , Otitis Media/drug therapy , Pediatrics/education , Practice Patterns, Physicians'/statistics & numerical data , Primary Health Care/methods , Respiratory Tract Infections/drug therapy , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Child , Humans , Insurance, Health , Patient Education as Topic/methods , Quality Improvement , Societies, MedicalABSTRACT
Transition-aged youth and young adults, ages 12 to 26, represent almost 20% of the US population, and an estimated 25%-35% have one or more chronic conditions. The vast majority of youth with and without special health care needs do not receive the necessary and professionally recommended services to transition from pediatric to adult care. Without adequate support during this transition, youth and young adults face an increased risk of adverse outcomes. To accelerate adoption of recommended transition processes in both pediatric and adult systems of care, the authors offer a series of implementation, payment, and research options that are consistent with clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American College of Physicians.
