Do you have an Asthma Action Plan?

You and your health professional will work together to create an asthma action plan. You then follow your action plan when you notice a change in your asthma symptoms or PEF. An asthma action plan will help you make quick decisions about treatment so that you can avoid more serious episodes and get better.

Why is an asthma action plan important?

A review of research on asthma action plans reports that plans based on personal peak expiratory flow and the use of inhaled and pill-form corticosteroids improved the outcome of episodes. If you do not follow your action plan or do not use the medications it specifies, you may have a worse or longer acute asthma episode. You may have to seek emergency care or go to the hospital.

Things to Consider 

It is important to treat acute asthma episodes quickly. If you do not improve soon after treatment for an episode, contact a health professional.

You may need to see a specialist (allergist or pulmonologist) if you have:

• Unusual symptoms, or there are problems deciding whether you have asthma.
• Other medical conditions that make it hard to treat asthma.
• Need for additional education or difficulty following your daily asthma treatment and action plans.
• Not met the goals of treatment after 3 to 6 months of therapy.
• Had a life-threatening asthma episode.

Other reasons to see a specialist include:

• Having severe persistent asthma.
• Needing to take continuous oral corticosteroid medications or high-dose inhaled corticosteroids or having had more than two treatments with oral corticosteroids in 1 year.
• Having asthma because of your workplace (occupational asthma).
• Needing skin testing for allergy.
• Thinking about starting treatment with allergy shots (immunotherapy).

If you or a loved one suffers from asthma that is not well controlled, please contact us for a personalized asthma action plan today!