Geary Community Hospital - Geary Community Asthma Initiative

What is it? 

Geary Community Hospital (GCH) and the Geary Community Healthcare Foundation implemented a plan to help children better manage their asthma. The initiative began by bringing the American Lung Association Open Airways for Schools to area schools to help children learn compliance and adherence to treatment. GCH provides numerous continuing education opportunities for healthcare professionals, school nurses and area health agency personnel. These professionals continually report that these are extremely valuable in making them more confident in their treatment skills.

Equipment made available to youth include Action Cards (a laminated set of instructions that details responses to an attack from the first signs to the most severe symptoms) and Peak Flow Meters (to provide the necessary baseline vital in determining the responses necessary to an attack). These items are distributed through health care providers to those who need them, regardless of ability to pay. Thanks to a new reporting system, a respiratory technician now monitors all cases to ensure that information and treatment are consistent and results are measured.

Who is it for?

The entire patient catchment area for GCH, with an emphasis on children.

Why do they do it?

The respiratory technician and emergency department (ED) personnel were concerned that there was a need for a better and more coordinated treatment for asthma among youth. Children, in some cases, were arriving in the ED in the midst of an asthma attack without ever having seen a family physician. This meant that they were often not receiving consistent information about the management of their asthma.

School nurses were providing front-line treatment to the children in our community, with a large number of asthma sufferers in each school, yet their training in helping children better manage their own asthma was not as high quality as it could be. As the major health care facility in the area, GCH recognized the need to provide necessary information and tools for individuals to better understand and manage asthma, regardless of family income or ability to pay.

GCH also recognized the need for consistent and high-quality training and information for parents, teachers, school nurses, hospital personnel and physicians. And the hospital felt a better tracking system would ensure that the program was successful. In the short term, GCH wanted to immediately respond to the needs of children whose asthma often goes undetected or under-treated. In the long term, GCH wanted to enable children to have fewer and less severe asthma attacks, have more confidence in their ability to take steps to manage their asthma and exert greater influence on their parents' asthma management decisions.

Impact

Reports show fewer missed school days due to asthma-related illness, fewer attacks of a severity that leads to the ED, and fewer children seen in the ED who have never been seen by a family physician. Ultimately, success means that there is consistent information and care for each child from the home, through the school nurse, through the family physician, the respiratory therapist and any other health care professional the child sees.

Contact: Jolana Montgomery-Matney
Executive Director, Geary Community Healthcare Foundation
Telephone: 785-238-3787
E-mail: jmontgomery@gchks.org