Quality Improvement for Asthmatics: Reducing Emergency Department Visits for High-risk Asthmatics through Clinical Informatics and Clinical Pharmacist Management Program

Background Asthma exacerbations leading to ED visits are prevalent (1 in 5 children/ year), associated with significant morbidity, health care utilization and even mortality. Among multiple predictors, recent exacerbation history is the strongest predictor of future exacerbations. This provides a window of opportunity to identify and educate high-risk asthmatics to reduce further exacerbation. Local problem At baseline, in our system, 52% of asthmatics did not have an assigned asthma severity in the problem list and there were 222 Emergency Department (ED) visits among high-risk asthmatics over a year. Objectives To improve classification of asthma into its severity in …