A-Team (Asthma Team, North & Mid Pinellas Co. & Pasco Co. FL

Our goal is that every child between the ages of 5-11 should have Asthma Action Plan and live an active lifestyle. We do not limit our services to this group but work actively with the YMCA and Salvation Army as well as the Department of Health, local governments and community groups to provide asthma education for free.

The team has developed "Grab and Go" bags for Emergency Department use which contain AAP, activity booklets, referral for asthma education and consent for follow-up. The use of the bags has expanded into the community. Each bag has a generic contact number on it. If the number is called, the patient is referred to the asthma educator closest to them for education and follow-up. We routinely contact all patients who have consented to follow-up to see how they are doing. Additionally we check to see if there is physician follow-up, AAP completed, maintenance medications, and number of day missed from school/work for the patient/parent.

We provide materials as well as educators for any group requesting these.

We are obtaining outcome information on our follow-ups for our four hospitals as well as the family clinic that participates in the program.

All five sites participate in community activities for WAD and for the Great American Smoke Out. We provide free gruop and individual tobacco counseling at our sites and will also do groups off-site for a minimal fee.

This year we did a poster presentation at CHEST 2008 on the "Grab and Go" bags.