Community-wide intervention to improve the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder assessment and treatment practices of community physicians.
OBJECTIVE
The goals were to implement and to test a quality-improvement intervention aimed at improving community-based primary care providers' adherence to the American Academy of Pediatrics, evidence-based diagnostic and treatment guidelines for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.


METHODS
Nineteen practices (with 84 primary care providers) from a large urban community were trained by using quality-improvement methods with some academic detailing. Pretraining and posttraining adherence to evidence-based practices was assessed through review of patient charts.


RESULTS
Preintervention rates of guideline usage were uniformly low. After the intervention, primary care providers showed substantial improvement in their use of the guidelines for the assessment and treatment of elementary school-aged patients with newly diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Use of parent and teacher assessment rating scales increased from levels of 52% to 55% to levels of nearly 100%. Systematic monitoring of responses to medication improved from a baseline level of 9% to 40%.


CONCLUSIONS
Quality-improvement interventions such as the one used in this study seem quite effective in improving primary care providers' practices at offices that express interest in improving the quality of care for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The design of the intervention, problems associated with improving and sustaining treatment monitoring, and issues related to generalizability of the intervention model are discussed.
Epstein
Jeffery N
JN
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. jeff.epstein@cchmc.org
Langberg
Joshua M
JM
Lichtenstein
Philip K
PK
Mainwaring
Beth A
BA
Luzader
Carolyn P
CP
Stark
Lori J
LJ
D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000592:standards