Improving Compliance with Dyslipidemia Screening Guidelines in a Single-center U.S. Outpatient Pediatric Cardiology Clinic

The development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease begins in childhood. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed guidelines recommending universal hyperlipidemia screening of children ages 9-11 and again at 17-21 years. An AAP Periodic Survey of Fellows demonstrated less than half of pediatricians report adherence to these guidelines. This quality improvement initiative's objective was to improve compliance with AAP hyperlipidemia guidelines in an outpatient pediatric cardiology clinic at a single academic center to 80% over a 2-month time frame. METHODS: We report the results of an IRB-approved chart review at a single-center outpatient pediatric cardiology practice. We defined pediatric cardiologists' compliance as documented prior lipid screening, ordering a lipid panel, or documented recommendation for follow-up screening. Two plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles were undertaken. The first intervention included an informational session to provide pediatric cardiologists with AAP recommendations. The second intervention involved weekly email reminders and a statement for physicians in the electronic medical record. RESULTS: We collected data from 600 individual charts of patients seen over 35 clinic days. We received charts before the first PDSA intervention. Baseline compliance with outpatient hyperlipidemia screening was 0%. After the first PDSA cycle, the average screening rate improved to 49%. After the second PDSA cycle, the average screening rate improved to 89%, and there was a centerline shift in the data, indicating improvement. CONCLUSION: We improved the pediatric cardiologists' compliance with the AAP-recommended hyperlipidemia screening guidelines from 0% to 89% through 2 intervention cycles. Further efforts may be required to sustain this change.