The Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been selected as one of the 2015 recipients of the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Quality Care Award: Recognizing Outstanding QI Processes and Accomplishments. The UAB Department of Medicine, in concert with UAB Hospital, developed the adult CF program with a team of health care personnel to provide comprehensive, evidence-based clinical care for adult patients with cystic fibrosis. The team includes nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, nutritionists, social workers and physicians, and cares for more than 180 individuals with CF.
The program is also aligned with the UAB CF clinical trials unit and the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center. The center is recognized internationally for its transformative clinical and basic research, including the development of new therapies for the treatment of this devastating disease.
“We are gratified and excited to be recognized by CFF for the quality of our care,” said Veena Antony, M.D., professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care and director of the adult CF program. “We believe this is a signature program that will identify UAB as an international destination for patient care.”
The award marks sustained quality improvement work that improved outcomes. Performance standards include:
- Actively using clinical outcomes data to identify opportunities for improvement and document results of improvement efforts
- Aligning improvement efforts to result in measurable improvement in important clinical outcomes
- Consistently and actively involving patients and families in identifying, designing and/or implementing improvement efforts
- Employing innovative strategies to improve care processes and outcomes and implementing system changes that result in high reliability of care processes