National Minority Quality Forum

The National Minority Quality Forum’s project Lung Cancer Screening Quality Improvement in Kentucky will receive $209,356 to pilot a program to test adaptation of a QI model to enhance lung cancer screening among underserved and increased risk populations, to form a model for statewide and national dissemination. The program will include training of 20 primary care practice leaders in the Kentucky LEADS tools, quality improvement, patient engagement and team-based care approaches. These will be utilized to achieve the overall goal of developing a strategy for sustainably increasing tobacco use counseling and lung cancer screening referrals in primary care offices serving underserved and at risk patients.

Need

Kentucky leads the nation with the highest lung cancer incidence, with an estimated 3,500 deaths expected from lung cancer this year. In Kentucky, risk is not equally distributed, but rather is highly concentrated in discreet regions, especially on the eastern side of the state near the Appalachian Mountains. Unfortunately, this rural region also suffers persistent shortages of primary care providers and specialty care, and the population endures lower levels of education and income/wealth than in most of the state, as well as nation, all of which are barriers to early screening and effective prevention and treatment of lung cancer.

Project

The proposed project intervention will include training of 20 primary care practice leaders (a physician and non-physician from 10 practices) in the Kentucky LEADS products and quality improvement/patient engagement/team-based care – which will then be utilized to achieve the overall goal of developing a strategy for sustainably increasing tobacco use screening/ counseling and lung cancer screening referrals in primary care serving underserved patients.

Project Leader

Laura Lee Hall, lhall@shcllc.info