Asthma is included in QOF and it is important practices are recording activity for this purpose and for patient care.
Ardens has created a variety of resources to assist with identifying patients who may have asthma, and to support their ongoing management once diagnosed.
There is also video at the footer of this page.
Recording Information on the Management of Patients with Asthma
The Ardens Asthma template has been designed to standardise consultations, ensuring clinicians are following the same national guidelines and recording accurate coding of data.
The template can be located in the following ways:
- If the patient has a current diagnoses, click the blue inhaler icon in the patient demographics box
- alternatively go to Auto-Consultation > ardens CONDITIONS RESPIRATORY > Asthma >=17y
There are both adult & child templates available, Ardens have created a protocol so the appropriate template will display dependant on the age of the patient.
Home Tab
The home Tab will give you access to the different pages of the template (diagnosis, review etc), as well as a summary of relevant medical history for the patient. Please see our Home Tab Support Article for more information.
N.B. Red Stars indicate these areas are required for QOF, Blue Stars are for Network Contract DES and Yellow Stars for local payment.
Diagnosis
The Diagnosis page can be used for patients without a confirmed diagnosis of Asthma. This page enables you to record spirometry, FeNO and peak flow results with direct links to the relevant templates to add further detail.
Based on these findings the diagnosis code can then be added if required by ticking the box labelled Asthma as below.
Review and care plan
All the Ardens chronic disease templates follow the latest NICE guidance and best practice information. The review page also includes all contract requirements for QOF, Network DES & local (highlighted with red, blue & yellow stars).
To complete a full review, the Review tab should be used. As with all Ardens templates the coding is applied within the middle section using the drop down menus available, to the right of these is a link to a corresponding template or relevant resource for convenience.
Clicking in to any field will display historical results in the panel on the right side of the template, in numeric fields just manually type a new result.
Useful links include Corticosteroid Monitoring
ACT Score
Complete the questionnaire by selecting from the drop down choices, the template will auto calculate the score and code directly to the record once you click Ok.
PEFR Diary
Print this format directly by clicking Print at the bottom of the template or as a Word Document at the top of the template.
Management section
Choose a relevant medication review code and if needing to prescribe, use the Asthma Formulary to the right. The template allows you to prescribe medication using both NICE or British Thoracic Society guidelines.
Both sections list reliever & maintenance inhalers and provide pictures of the inhaler, just click the required button to prescribe the required inhaler.
The window at the bottom will list current and past relevant medications. Right click on any drug to issue or re-prescribe.
Inhaler Technique
The Inhaler Technique Review template allows you to record a full review and contains links to videos showing inhaler & spacer device technique which can be used during a face to face appointment or sent to a patient remotely by copying a link and forwarding by text/email.
Care Plan
Ensure the appropriate QOF care plan code is added from the drop down menu. The care plan can also be generated from here by clicking the required Word Document. There are 4 available to choose from:
- Care Plan (Ardens)
- MART
- SMART
- Asthma UK
The care plan will auto populate with information you have entered throughout the review. In order to do this, before you open the word document you will need to close the asthma template either by clicking Ok at the bottom or Suspend and then re-open the template. Then click on the care plan required.
The Notes tab on the template has a free text box at the bottom for Agreed self-management plan. Anything you write in here will pull through in to the Ardens care plan if using.
Other useful links
Located in the bottom right corner of the template are useful links to Follow-up (calendar icon) which will allow you to add a SystmOne recall, view pending appointments, book an appointment using the appointment ledger.
Create a task (clipboard & pencil icon).
Red star - QOF Asthma template which shows QOF indicators and guidance on AST007. The bottom of the template will also show all outstanding QOF alerts for the patient.
Exacerbation and Follow up
There is an Exacerbations page for use when a patient presents with an exacerbation. It helps determine the severity of the exacerbation, provides advice on when the patient may need hospital admission and the Follow Up page is for recording post-admission review.
For more information please view our Asthma video below: