Conducting Patient Assessments

Patient assessment visits are used to evaluate the patient, characterize their asthma, assess their allergic sensitivities, and identify asthma and environmental risk factors. The assessment visits include:

 

Baseline Clinical Assessment—Collect information on the patient and establish a baseline for comparison; the visit includes—

  • A physical examination
  • An assessment of asthma symptoms, asthma-related healthcare utilization, and medication use using the Asthma Symptoms and Utilization: Baseline questionnaire 
  • An assessment of pulmonary function; learn more in the Spirometry section of the Manual and by watching this brief CHAMPS e-Learning video
  • An assessment of airway inflammation (optional); learn more in the FeNO section of the Manual
  • An allergen sensitivity assessment covering a basic panel of the most common indoor environmental allergens; learn more in the Allergen Sensitivity Testing section of the Manual and by watching this brief CHAMPS e-Learning video
  • Completion of the Child Asthma Risk Assessment Tool (CARAT); learn more in the CARAT section of the Manual

Learn more in the Baseline Clinical Assessment section of the Manual.

 

Home Environmental Risk Evaluation – Visit the patient's home to assess environmental risk factors for asthma. Learn more in the Home Environment Assessment section of the Manual. 

 

6-Month Outcome Assessment – Reassess patient’s asthma symptoms and asthma-related healthcare usage via physician assessment and the Asthma Symptoms and Utilization: Follow-up questionnaire to see if the patient's asthma is improving; learn more in the Follow-up Assessments section of the Manual.

 

12-Month Outcome Assessment – Reassess patient’s asthma symptoms and asthma-related healthcare usage via physician assessment and the Asthma Symptoms and Utilization questionnaire to see if the CHAMPS intervention has improved the patient's asthma over the 12-month intervention period. Learn more in the Follow-up Assessments Visit section of the Manual. 

 

The information collected about the patient during the Baseline Clinical Assessment and Home Environmental Assessment visits is used to create the patient-tailored asthma counseling plan delivered during the Asthma Counseling sessions. Information collected at the 6-month and 12-month visits is used to track the process of each child that participates in the intervention. 

 

Next: Learn about Conducting Asthma Counseling.