The Community Pediatric Asthma Service-Together We're Better: Asthma care in the Calgary zone.

Abstract

The Community Pediatric Asthma Service in Calgary, Alberta, focuses on improving asthma self-management skills for patients and families through one-on-one education sessions in the Calgary Zone. We also aim to increase physician confidence to diagnose and manage asthma by sharing medically accurate, consistent information in innovative ways. The Public Health Agency of Canada estimates the national prevalence of asthma to be 15.3% for the 1–19-year-old age group [1] and, according to the most recent federal census, the total population of Calgary was 1,276,650, with 296,210 in the 1–19-year-old age group [2]. Given these statistics, that equates to more than 44,000 children in the Calgary Zone (Zone) estimated to have asthma. A recent report from the Canadian Lung Association states that approximately 45% of Canadians do not have their asthma under “good” or “somewhat good” control [3]. In 2006–2007, asthma was the number two reason for an emergency visit to Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) [4]. In 2017–2018, ACH reported asthma had dropped to the eighth most responsible diagnosis in the emergency department (see Table 1) [5]. The Zone includes a large area of 39,300 km2 with a population of 1,612,917 (2015–2016) [6].Communities included in this area include Banff and Lake Louise to the West, Didsbury to the North, Claresholm to the South, and Strathmore to the East [7, 8]. Table 1 Alberta Children’s Hospital top 75% emergency department diagnoses 2016–2017 [5] Diagnosis Total visits (%*) Average length of stay (h) Acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified sites 4220 (5.5) 2.4 Viral infection of unspecified site 3739 (4.9) 2.6 Other gastroenteritis and colitis of infections and unspecified origin 3267 (4.2) 3.0 Abdominal and pelvic pain 3033 (3.9) 3.9 Fever of other and unknown origin 2890 (3.8) 3.4 Acute obstructive laryngitis (croup) and epiglottitis 2866 (3.7) 2.6 Open wound of head 2182 (2.8) 2.3 Asthma 1914 (2.5) 4.9 Nausea and vomiting 1689 (2.2) 3.2 Open in a separate window *Percentage of all visits to the emergency department. This commentary will discuss how the Community Pediatric Asthma Service was developed and eventually funded, how our program operates, as well as the successes we have achieved in the treatment of pediatric asthma in this Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS).