Integrating Continuing Professional Development, Continuing Education, and Quality Improvement: A Case Study and Implications for Practice

Continuing professional development (CPD) and quality improvement (QI) are both dedicated to improving clinical practice and health outcomes. Although leaders in both disciplines have long recommended closer alignment, few case studies have demonstrated how such alignment can be developed and sustained within a health care system. Kaiser Permanente Colorado is an integrated health care delivery system in the United States that has worked toward coordination of CPD and QI for >20 years. Alignment of departmental reporting structures, interdisciplinary teams of educators, incorporation of quality concerns into continuing education (CE) activities, coordination of CE activities with implementation of decision support tools, and reliance on evidence-based educational practices have all contributed to a unique organizational culture of education. Published research has shown that their approach can lead to sustainable practice change. Many elements of this approach are potentially applicable to other systems, including consistent use of interprofessional teams, recognizing the organizational context, development of a theory of change to address education and quality gaps, coordination of CE and quality interventions, and using educational and clinical data to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. Because these changes have occurred within an evolving environment of real-world practice, the effectiveness of specific components or the interactions between them are difficult to establish. Nonetheless, the Kaiser Permanente Colorado model provides one example of coordination between CPD and QI experts to achieve their shared goal of improving clinician practice, patient care, and system performance.