IN-DEPTH: ASTHMA
Work experience student Mary Parrott, paediatric nurse student Flutura Asllani and Dr Katelyn Aitchison at the asthma big room
ON ALL FRONTS I
n winter 2018, one child attended our children’s A&E three times within a month due to asthma exacerbation. children with asthma in the UK where, according to a report, young people are more likely to die from this chronic condition than in other high- income countries. Our clinicians are taking a multifaceted approach to tackling the condition to help turn the situation around. “It’s easy to become complacent and miss the children who are really struggling,” explains Dr Sharon Hall, consultant paediatric allergist. Sharon
6 /Trust
TACKLING ASTHMA
Harnessing improvement science, digital technology and community links to improve asthma care in our area.
has spent the past decade as part of a Trust team improving asthma care pathways locally.
“The work of our team, including improving education around asthma and creating new guidelines, has helped but we’ve always been hindered by the lack of good data and digital resources.” pathways to go through the Imperial Flow Coaching Academy programme (see ‘for more information’) has helped the team deliver a step change in improvements that have implications for how we integrate care more widely.
TAKING A BIG ROOM APPROACH approach is the weekly big room. The asthma big room launched in 2017 and has enabled sustained focus to improve the recognition and management of asthma and wheeze in children and young people in north west London. Since its launch, the big room has helped the team to achieve measurable improvements in three key areas: the recognition of asthma as a major health issue; reinforcing inhaler techniques; and the use of digital asthma care plans.
NEW DIGITAL CARE PLAN “Following an audit of A&E admissions for children and young people with asthma or wheeze that found only 17 per cent of patients were discharged with a care plan, we prioritised the development of a digital version to make it more accessible,” explains Dr Lizzie McGeorge, a junior doctor who is part of the big room.
The care plan, which details the child’s medicines, asthma triggers, instructions for coping with an asthma attack and information about appointments, was based on a model developed by Asthma UK, with additional support from a team at The Royal London Hospital. “The great thing about our digital care
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