Quality Indicators

• Access to care
  
• Immunizations
  
• Antibiotic usage

QA Committee

The Children’s Clinic Quality Assurance committee consists of physicians from our clinic. The groups’ goal and commitment is to continuously monitor and maintain quality medical care, and clinical protocols.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

• Edward Richman MD
• Daniel Gleason MD
  
• Kari Smart MD
  
• Rebecca Nelson MD
• Heather O’Leary, RN

Access To Care

This section briefly outlines how accessible we are to our patients. Providing quality care goes beyond the exam room. Your child’s comfort and trust is important. We pride ourselves on building and maintaining a strong patient/physician relationship. Access to your child’s Primary Care Provider is important, as well as immediate care when needed. We do our best to cover both aspects for every child. Our goal is to minimize wait times, and are continually working to improve this.

• Average Advice calls per day: 289
• Average Advice wait time: 2 min 54 sec.
• Average Scheduling calls per day: 356
• Average Scheduling wait time: 2 min 29 sec.
• % of patients seen by own PCP for non urgent need: 92%
• % of patients seen by own PCP for same day appts: 58%

* Please note that our busiest phone times are 8:00AM to 10:00AM, and 3:00PM to 4:00PM. If calling during these times you may experience longer wait times than normal.*

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Immunization

At The Childrens Clinic, our goal is to accurately and consistently immunize each child against preventable diseases. Average Immunization Compliance 4th Quarter 2007

• State of Oregon: 73%
  
• Nationally: 77%
  
• The Childrens Clinic : 88.1%

Appropriate Antibiotic Use

Antibiotics were the original “miracle drug.”  After they became widely available in the 1950’s and 60’s, the dramatic impact they made on the grim toll taken by bacterial disease was undeniable.  But too much of any good thing becomes a problem.

Over-use of antibiotics has produced its own set of adverse consequences.  These include unnecessary side effects and emergence of resistant, difficult-to-treat bacteria.  Our pediatricians feel that is important to both the current and future health of our patients to eliminate the over-use of antibiotics.  Our goal is to limit antibiotic treatment to only those conditions for which they are necessary and effective.  Our clinic-wide use of electronic medical records gives us a new tool to meet this goal.

• Pharyngitis (Strep Throat) - Antibiotics are useful for bacterial throat infections- commonly referred to as “strep throat.”  They are ineffective against the more common viral throat infections.  We are surveying our patient records to ensure that we have documented evidence of a bacterial infection, such as a positive strep test, when antibiotics are prescribed.
• URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) - Upper respiratory infections, commonly known as “colds”,  are usually caused by viruses.  When colds are caused by viruses, and no additional bacterial infection is present, antibiotics are not helpful and can sometimes cause harm.  We are surveying our patient records to ensure that antibiotics are not being used unless there is clinical indication of a bacterial infection.
  

Asthma Management

Asthma is a chronic condition which affects more and more American children each year.  Our pediatricians have reviewed the latest guidelines for the management of childhood asthma, including the Expert Panel Report released by the National Institutes of Health in August 2007.  We continually upgrade our care to achieve the best health and quality of life for our asthma patients. 

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