CHEST: A Collaboration With Community HEalth Centers to Implement SmarT for Asthma

Summary

Purpose: This study aims to improve asthma care by helping clinicians at community health centers prescribe a guideline-recommended treatment called SMART (Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy). The investigators will provide training and resources to clinicians, give feedback on prescribing patterns, and offer educational tools for patients and providers. The investigators will roll out these resources in stages across clinics. The study will measure how well the program helps clinicians prescribe SMART therapy and whether it reduces asthma exacerbations in patients.

Detailed Description

CHEST is a type 1 hybrid stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial wherein six federally qualified community health center clinics are randomly and iteratively selected to move in a 1-way crossover from the control group to the SMART implementation group. The primary intervention is the SMART implementation bundle includes four components: (1) clinician education on SMART with ongoing practice facilitation, (2) serial clinic- and clinician-level audit and feedback on inhaler prescribing patterns, (3) workflow integration support including prescribing preferences, and (4) provision of an online patient-centered education aid with a SMART congruent asthma action plan designed for patients with lower health literacy. The study is conceptually split into three phases: (1) the pre-implementation (control) phase focused on the development of implementation materials and baseline data gathering of prescription patterns; (2) the active implementation phase; and (3) the sustainment phase, which will focus on an assessment of sustainment and dissemination. 1. Pre-implementation phase: The pre-implementation phase is designed to be a baseline for the study. During this phase, no specific interventions will be introduced to the clinicians at participating IHN clinics. This phase will allow the CHEST study team to collect clinic-level data on current asthma care prescription practices and asthma-related outcomes. 2. Active implementation phase: At the start of the second phase, the implementation phase, the SMART implementation bundle will be introduced to the clinicians and staff at participating IHN clinics. 3. Sustainment phase: The final phase of the study is introduced after the active implementation of the SMART implementation bundle is complete at all participating IHN clinics. In the sustainment phase, formal assessments will be conducted to evaluate the sustainment of the SMART bundle. Additionally, this phase includes efforts to disseminate the findings of the study. This encompasses analyses of the reach and impact of the dissemination efforts, as well as the practical application and adoption of the findings in the broader medical community.

Eligibility Criteria

Interventions