Breakthroughs

NEW MOBILE HEALTH VAN TARGETS ASTHMA

AUGUST 08, 2009

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Charles Wood, a fifth-grader at Lucas Crossing Elementary Complex School in Normandy, Mo., missed more than 20 school days last year due to asthma. After he was enrolled in St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s Healthy Kids Asthma Management Program, he has been so successful in controlling his asthma that he received a perfect attendance award from his principal.

Asthma causes too many sick days for children, especially in St. Louis schools. That’s why SLCH rolled out its newest weapon in the attack on asthma for schoolchildren, their families and St. Louis schools. The new Healthy Kids Express Asthma Mobile Unit was unveiled in April at Lucas Crossing. The new van is dedicated solely to asthma and will visit local schools to help identify and treat children with asthma. The program also educates families and teachers about the disease.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children and the No. 1 admission at SLCH. The illness affects more than 6 million children across the United States and 15-20 percent of children in St. Louis. This year, St. Louis ranked as the No. 1 most challenging place in the country to live with asthma, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

The new mobile unit is the third vehicle in the hospital’s fleet and the only one dedicated solely to asthma. The Healthy Kids Asthma Management Program served 4,300 children and families last school year. Among them, 727 school children received intensive asthma services. The program educated 540 teachers and provided services to another 3,000 more people through community events.

Among all students who participated in the Healthy Kids Asthma Management Program throughout the 2007-08 school year, there was a 25 percent decrease in the average number of missed school days compared to their previous school year in the three new schools added to the program, and an average decrease in absenteeism of 13 percent in all the schools compared to 2006-07.

The program has been implemented in 13 elementary schools in St. Louis Public Schools, Normandy and Merrimac Valley R-3 (MVR III). The SLCH program team consists of nurse practitioners, nurses, asthma educators, asthma coaches and a social worker, van driver and coordinator.

The Healthy Kids Express Asthma Management Program is made possible by generous donations to SLCH from the Missouri Foundation for Health and Express Scripts Foundation. The new asthma mobile unit was funded by Dr. and Mrs. Randall Sterkel and Family.

"Their generosity will help children like Charles Wood to control their asthma and be more successful in the classroom and in life,” says Lisa Meadows, manager of the Healthy Kids Express Asthma Management Program. “It’s rewarding for our team to see the benefits of this program today, which began as a pilot four years ago.”

For more information about the Healthy Kids Express Asthma Management Program, call the SLCH Answer Line, 314-454-KIDS (5437), or visit www.StLouisChildrens.org.

More about asthma in St. Louis

• The number of children with asthma in the St. Louis metropolitan area is about three times the national average.
• Overall, one out of every 11 children under age 18 is currently living with asthma in the St. Louis region, but in some area schools as many as one out of every five children has asthma. 
• Asthma costs in Eastern Missouri total more than $75 million in lost school time, lost work time, and medicine and emergency room visits. 
• In the St. Louis area, more than 13 percent of adults over the age of 18 have been diagnosed with asthma.