Pediatric asthma is a big problem in this country. Did you know that each year, 10 million school days are missed due to asthma? And, over half a million kids visit an emergency department each year due to an asthma-related concern. Asthma is a chronic condition that often times requires medication. It also requires a lot of education for children and their families. The asthma team here at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is taking asthma management even further to offer the best possible care for our children. Our doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists have worked together to develop a home management plan of care, or action plan, that is specific to each child and covers the proper use of prescribed medications, list of triggers, who the child’s primary care provider is and that provider’s contact information. The action plan also includes details on how soon a family needs to follow up with their primary care provider if their child has been admitted and then discharged from the hospital. Listen in as Beth Allen, MD, Stephen Hersey, MD and Gloria Ayres, respiratory care program coordinator, discuss the ways our asthma team here at Nationwide Children’s is ensuring our patients get the best possible care.

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Dr. Shahid Sheikh: We did a very nicely written guidelines for asthma management. So it's kind of similar things which almost every pulmonologist or allergist do. And then the treatment depends on the guidelines.

Dr. Rick McClead: That was Dr. Shahid Sheikh, MD, pulmonologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, during the December 2009 Children's on Quality Podcast on Pediatric Asthma. What about those asthma guidelines? Every pulmonologist and allergist knows about the pediatric asthma guidelines yet how well are they following the guidelines? How well are we doing following the guidelines at Nationwide Children's Hospital?

Improving the Quality of Care for Pediatric Asthma at Nationwide Children's Hospital, next on Children's on Quality.

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01:01

Dr. Rick McClead: Welcome to Children's on Quality. This is your host, Dr Rick McClead, Medical Director for quality at Nationwide Children's Hospital. With me to discuss the quality improvement activities around pediatric asthma care are Dr. Beth Allen, pediatric pulmonologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Dr. Steven Hersey, primary care pediatrician at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Gloria Ayres, respiratory care program coordinator at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Welcome to Children's on Quality.

Dr. Beth Allen: Nice to be here. Thanks, Rick.

Dr. Steven Hersey: Thank you.

Gloria Ayres: Yes. Thanks for having us.

Dr. Rick McClead: Dr. Allen, before we dive into the quality care issues for pediatric asthma, I would like you to briefly describe for our listeners what pediatric asthma is and why this is such an important problem at Nationwide Children's Hospital and across the country.

Dr. Beth Allen: Well, Rick, you know that asthma is a huge problem for kids. It's a very common illness, it's a chronic illness that does not go away quickly that continues to haunt kids often for years and we've learned that it involves many aspects. It's inflammatory, it involves the bronchospasm of the airways, but you know is under control requires medications both for acute symptoms, but also for many kids chronic control.

It's a huge problem nationally. Over 10 million school days are missed per year for pediatric asthma and over half a million kids get hospitalized or come to the emergency room across the nation. We see that here at Children's too. We've had on average about 2,500 kids per year come to our emergency room for acute asthma and we admit over 700 kids a year for this problem and a good chunk of those have to go to the intensive care unit because they're so sick.

02:37

Dr. Rick McClead: Well, in our intro, Dr. Sheikh spoke about the pediatric asthma guidelines that all pulmonologist,