Assessment of asthma management in adult patients: A retrospective case-note review in a general practice

Abstract

This study aimed to assess asthma management in a sample of adult patients in general practice. A retrospective case-note review was conducted, involving 27 asthma patients in general practice in England. The Asthma Quality Improvement tool informed the development of the data collection tool. The data were analysed statistically by the researcher using frequencies testing, using descriptive statistics. Twenty-one participants out of 27 were reviewed in the general practice in the last12-months by their healthcare practitioner. All the components of an asthma review were assessed and recorded except the inhaler technique for 11participants and 66.7% were classed as having poorly-controlled asthma symptoms. Although the small sample size affected the generalisability of the findings, reviewing the medical records of each participant allowed the researcher to highlight issues with asthma management in the sample. This study found that asthma care in the participants requires improvement and highlighted areas that could be targeted to enhance asthma care. Asthma care could be enhanced by focusing on increasing asthma patients’ engagement with their annual asthma reviews, enhancing the provision of the asthma action plan and following a consistent approach for inhaler-technique check and recording of asthma review components. Finally, conducting multiple checks of asthma patients’ medical records might help to identify patients who need a review and support them to enhance their management of their asthma.

Keywords

• asthma care
• asthma management
• asthma action plan
• self-management
• annual asthma review
• asthma management