| Vision Statement | In an effort to address the social and environmental needs of children presenting with uncontrolled asthma, we will identify patients who present to the ED with an acute asthma exacerbation (or asthma-related diagnoses) and implement protocols to increase follow-up rates to primary care clinics after the acute episodes. Our plan is to implement long-term strategies/programs that assess and address obstacles to children obtaining access to routine asthma care and to control of the environmental causes of asthma. |
| Team Objectives | Our objectives were as follows:
Reduce the disparities, improve healthcare, and increase follow-up in asthma-related cases Reduce the disparities in the management of outcomes in better care coordination, education, medication compliance, and patient education Funnel potential patients into the Healthy Homes Program for assessment of environmental causes contributing to asthmatic exacerbations
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| Success Factors | Success depends on vision and commitment, persistence, relationships, and sweat equity. Collaboration with community partners is key. We believe that the hard wiring of that collaboration with a dedicated department at UnityPoint Health-Des Moines is important for success. |
| Barriers | One barrier encountered was that patients could have been seen at EDs or clinics outside of our health system, limiting the accuracy of documented outcomes. Another barrier was that the processes implemented were dependent on individual employees to manually produce notes and letters, as well as to contact patients. These functions could be automated to improve efficiency. |
| Lessons Learned | The single most important piece of advice to provide another team embarking on a similar initiative is to embed study components into personnel job descriptions so the process is role-based rather than dependent on specific people. Otherwise, it is difficult to adjust when employees are reassigned or on extended leave. |