Building capacity for continuous quality improvement (CQI): A pilot study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the feasibility, effectiveness, and sustainability of CQI approaches in substance use disorder treatment settings.

METHODS: In the initial phase of this study, eight programs were randomly assigned to receive a CQI intervention or to a waitlist control condition to obtain preliminary information about potential effectiveness. In the second phase, the initially assigned control programs received the CQI intervention to gain additional information about intervention feasibility while sustainability was explored among the initially assigned intervention programs.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Although CQI was feasible and sustainable, demonstrating its effectiveness using administrative data was challenging suggesting the need to better align performance measurement systems with CQI efforts. Further, although the majority of staff were enthusiastic about utilizing this approach and reported provider and patient benefits, many noted that dedicated time was needed in order to implement and sustain it.