Profile of a primary care practice asthma program: improved patient outcomes in a high-risk population.

Asthma touches all of our lives. Asthma is a disease entity of huge proportions nationally and locally. It is the most common cause of school absences from a chronic disease and a common reason for parents and caregivers to miss work. The purpose of this article is to provide pediatric nurse practitioners with an understanding of the impact of asthma on children, their families, and on clinical practice. It will examine an asthma program created in a pediatric primary care setting to treat a high-risk population that proved very successful. The discussion of these issues incorporates results from a 2-year clinical project that focused on the reduction of asthma-related emergency department visits, asthma-related hospitalizations, and asthma-related missed school days.