Staff at Children's National Medical Center (Children's) in Washington, in collaboration with other hospitals in the city, implemented an emergency department-based demonstration project to improve the care of children with asthma.

The main focus was developing an asthma clinic at Children's for repeat emergency department (ED) pediatric asthma patients and their parents and evaluating its impact.

The project was part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) national program Managing Pediatric Asthma: Emergency Department Demonstration Program (for more information see Grant Results).

Key Results and Findings

• The project established an ongoing clinic, the IMPACT DC Asthma Clinic, at Children's that provides individualized asthma care and education to ED pediatric asthma patients and their parents during a follow-up visit to the emergency department 2–15 days after ED discharge.
• A randomized clinical trial found that after six months, asthma clinic participants reported greater use of asthma control medicines, fewer ED visits and improved quality of life when compared to members of a control group.

Funding
RWJF supported the project from October 2001 through March 2005 with an $874,837 grant.