# PA-20-070: The PIPA (Pediatric Inpatient Pathways for Asthma) Study: Optimizing Quality of Hospital Care for Children with Asthma

> **NIH AHRQ K08** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2021 · $27,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated rapid changes in healthcare delivery in the US,
including the care of hospitalized children. These changes (e.g., reducing non-urgent healthcare
to maintain supplies and capacity for surges in COVID-19 cases) have had a variety of impacts
on care quality and safety. We propose to identify major learnings from these changes in the
care of hospitalized children and understand the intended and unintended consequences of
these changes; this knowledge can be used to improve care quality during this or future
pandemics or disasters. Dr. Kaiser is PI of an ongoing career development award funded by
AHRQ. During this award, she led a national quality collaborative of 89 hospitals working to
improve inpatient pediatric care.2,3 For this grant supplement, we have recruited leaders from 25
of these hospitals to participate in a qualitative study. Our specific aim is to identify major
learnings from healthcare delivery changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and
understand the potential quality and safety implications for hospitalized children. We will
conduct purposeful sampling. We will recruit 2-3 participants from each of the 25 sites (total
n=50-60 participants), including leaders of healthcare delivery planning (e.g., inpatient pediatric
unit directors) and additional front-line clinicians. We have developed a semi-structured
interview guide using the Hospital Disaster Resilience framework and “Health Systems Respond
to COVID-19: Priorities for Rapid-Cycle Evaluation” by AcademyHealth. We will conduct an in-
depth qualitative analysis using constant comparative methods to develop a conceptual model
of major changes and learnings in healthcare delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will
also explore: 1) potential disparate effects on vulnerable groups of children, and 2) potential
quality and safety implications. Our expected outcomes are an in-depth understanding of
major changes and learnings in healthcare delivery for hospitalized children during the COVID-
19 pandemic, identification of potential implications for quality and safety of care, and selection
of candidate quality metrics for future quantitative analyses of the impacts of COVID-19
pandemic on hospitalized children. Our findings can be rapidly and widely disseminated through
our organizational partners to better enable hospitals to improve and monitor care quality for
children.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10175957
- **Project number:** 3K08HS024592-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Sunitha Vemula Kaiser
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $27,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-03-01 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10175957

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10175957, PA-20-070: The PIPA (Pediatric Inpatient Pathways for Asthma) Study: Optimizing Quality of Hospital Care for Children with Asthma (3K08HS024592-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10175957. Licensed CC0.

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