Children Asthma Care Measure

The joint commission board is mandated to set standards applicable to hospitals for all ailments. The measures hence ensure that patients get quality service, reduce the quality of compilations and even mortality (Fassl, Nkoy, Stone, Srivastava, Simon, Uchida & Maloney, 2012). Hospitals are, therefore, required to adhere to the set standards and always report on their progress for further analysis. The children asthma care (CAC) sets guidelines that hospitals must follow when managing pediatric asthma cases (Fassl, et al., 2012). The core measurement will hence ensure that the children go through the necessary process once they report to the hospitals, proper assessment is done and the right medication is given to the children.

According to the children’s asthma care (CAC) measure, asthmatic children should first be given relievers (CAC-1) once they report to the hospitals (Fassl, et al., 2012). The relievers ensure that the symptoms subside and they do not hence become fatal for the patient. The children should also be given systemic Corticosteroids (CAC-2) to manage their condition and any complications they could be experiencing in the process. The systemic Corticosteroids help to relief the bronchoconstriction that exists during an acute asthmatic exacerbation (Soo, Saini & Moles, 2013). As children are discharged from the hospital, they ought to be given a home management plan to ensure they live with their asthmatic condition.

There is a need for the medical facility to ensure that the parents have proper education on the management of the condition at home. Additionally, the administration should disclose any adverse effects of the medication, highlighting cases where the children should be rushed back to the hospitals (Morse, Hall, Fieldston, McGwire, Anspacher, Sills & Shah, 2011). The harmful effects of some of the relievers may include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and shakiness. The parent should, however, return to the hospital if the child experiences any form of pain such as chest pain, ear pain, severe headache and an irregular heartbeat.

Hospitals can indeed set policies that ensure that they are adhering to the core measure. Once a patient reports to the hospital, it is vital to assess their condition and the progress of their asthma to gauge the right medication to give (Morse, et al., 2011). The nurses ought to first administer corticosteroids such as Albuterol, Albuterol Sulfate, Albuterol/Ipratropium and Metaproterenol to relieve the acute asthma symptoms. The management ought to ensure that there is sufficient stock of the relievers based on the statistics that they have had on the children reporting to the hospital (Morse, et al., 2011).

The medical personnel should also be well educated on the management of asthma and how they can measure their standards against the set goals to ensure that they are always in compliance. There is also need to report on the number of children that get into the hospital, admission cases and any medication given to the students. Well managed children should not always revisit the hospital, and they should manage their asthmatic condition at home (Soo, et al., 2013). The management should also ensure that they have facilitated the right education to the parents and the child (Morse, et al., 2011). A child that correctly uses the inhaler in the event of an attack may reduce any fatalities and the consequent visit to the hospitals. Parents should also ensure that they have strictly followed all the medication that the child has been given to maintain stability.

There should be a Proper assessment of the asthmatic child upon arrival at the hospital. The hospital should also follow up the services by administering systematic corticosteroids. Lastly, the nurses ought to educate the guardian and the child on the best home management care for their condition. With the right approach, there can hence be rare cases of severity with consequent hospitalization linked with acute asthma.

References

Fassl, B. A., Nkoy, F. L., Stone, B. L., Srivastava, R., Simon, T. D., Uchida, D. A., ... & Maloney, C. G. (2012). The Joint Commission Children’s Asthma Care quality measures and asthma readmissions. Pediatrics, 130(3), 482-491.
Morse, R. B., Hall, M., Fieldston, E. S., McGwire, G., Anspacher, M., Sills, M. R., ... & Shah, S. S. (2011). Hospital-level compliance with asthma care quality measures at children's hospitals and subsequent asthma-related outcomes. Jama, 306(13), 1454-1460.
Soo, Y. Y., Saini, B., & Moles, R. J. (2013). Can asthma education improve the treatment of acute asthma exacerbation in young children?. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 49(5), 353-360.
The Joint Commission. (2013). Core measure sets. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/core_measure_sets.aspx