Asthma Learning Collaborative

views the best pictures

If you have a child who wheezes or has asthma we may have asked you to fill out an asthma form when you have been in the office in the last few months.  This is because our office is participating in a learning collaborative that is helping us improve our asthma care.

The learning collaborative is organized by the American Academy of Pediatrics and includes about 25 practices in 4 states. The program lasts 15 months and involves phone calls, classes and paperwork for the doctors. For the patients it involves surveys.   The information from the surveys gets entered into an asthma registry.  We are then able to analyze our data to see what we can improve on.

We were initially overwhelmed by the amount of work but have grown to really like the surveys. We have found that we are better able to identify how our patients are doing.  Most of the time we know but sometimes we will be surprised about how many ER visits or missed school days that a patient had.  We can also target our education about asthma better. For example who needs education about spacer use or preventive medications.  This fall we will be able to use the information to make sure our high risk patients get flu shots.

So… we thank everyone for filling out the surveys. It is helping us take better care of your child!