Improving the Quality of Asthma Care
New Tools for States
Overview
States are in a unique position to play a central role in quality improvement efforts than can transform health care systems, reduce costs, and improve public health. For several years asthma has been a target for such efforts by States and other health care entities because of its increased prevalence (especially among children and adolescents), high cost of care, racial/ethnic and income disparities, and wide variation in treatments that can manage the disease and prevent attacks. In addition, a number of States already have begun demonstrations or other programs to improve the quality of asthma care. To assist such efforts, AHRQ has released the following products:
- Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action. This comprehensive guide offers a wealth of information and details for a range of participants in a State's quality improvement effort, including State elected leaders, executive branch officials, and other nongovernmental State and local health care leaders. The Resource Guide provides background information on why States should consider asthma as a priority for State action, presents analysis of State and national data and measures of asthma quality of care, and gives guidance for developing a State quality improvement plan. A list of over 100 separate national, State, and local efforts to improve asthma care quality is included.
- Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Workbook for State Action. A companion to the Resource Guide, the interactive Workbook presents review exercises for State leaders on the key skills and lessons from the Resource Guide to use in making the case for asthma care quality improvement, learning from improvement efforts already underway, measuring asthma quality of care, and implementing asthma care quality improvement plans using a State-led quality improvement framework. These practical exercises enable Workbook users to focus on their States in comparison to the Nation and other States.
Download Information
The Resource Guide and Workbook are available in Web versions as well as Word or PDF files. Your browser may support downloading Word or PDF files by using the links below. Right click on the link and then select "Save Target As" (Internet Explorer) or "Save Link As" (Firefox®, Netscape®).
- Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action (
PDF version - 1.24 MB ). - Asthma Care Quality Improvement: A Workbook for State Action ( PDF version - 558.22 KB ;
Microsoft Word version - 436 KB ).
