Promoting Quality Asthma Care in Hospital Emergency Departments: Past, Present, and Future Efforts in Florida
Learning and Action Networks
Building on lessons learned from our evaluation of emergency department asthma care and delivery of interactive webinars, our team proposed a systems-focused approach for implementing and sharing knowledge gained from these activities. As such, the department of health is developing Learning and Action Networks. LANs are mechanisms by which large-scale improvement around a given aim is fostered, studied, adapted, and rapidly spread. LANs are similar to “communities of practice” in that they promote learning among peer practitioners, but differ in that they focus on a specific improvement initiative, in this case delivery of and reimbursement for comprehensive asthma management.
The department of health has so far implemented 2 LANs, one for managed care organizations including those working under Medicaid and Florida KidCare, and one for providers, including federally qualified health centers, community health centers, and rural health centers. In future funding years, LANs will be established for pharmacists, hospitals, and public housing groups to promote coverage for and utilization of comprehensive asthma control services.
LANs are carried out in partnership with the professional organizations and related umbrella organizations serving each sector. A minimum of 3 webinars will be offered each year for each LAN. They will promote active engagement and communication between partners as well as offer opportunities to share successes and troubleshooting tips. Online forums or other means of communication will also be established based on the needs of participants. Topics will be driven by participant interests and will include performance and quality improvement, public health/health care system linkages, use of decision support tools, use of electronic health records for care coordination, and other issues related to the provision and reimbursement for evidence-based, comprehensive asthma control services.
LAN facilitators and members will learn continuously from one another. Members can implement best practices for strategic collaboration learned from facilitators, while facilitators will become familiar with best practices for asthma care that can be disseminated within and beyond Florida.
The LAN for hospitals will cover improving emergency department asthma care. This may include performance and quality improvement strategies, systems-level linkages between public health and clinical care, provider decision support tools, use of electronic health records for care coordination, case management resources for continuous follow-up after discharge, and evidence-based approaches to medication dispensing and monitoring.
