Asthma is a common lung condition that can affect all ages, there is currently no cure. 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. 

 

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.

 

To locate the Ardens Asthma Template, access the relevant patient record. Open a new consultation and select the Run Template option (if not in consultations, click on the Add button on the EMIS ribbon, followed by Data Using Template option).

 

This will open the Template Picker screen. If you have accessed any templates before, these will display to the left of the screen. Search for the template by typing “asthma” in the search box.

 

 

This will return the Asthma NEW (Ardens) template (alternatively select the Ardens > Clinical templates > Respiratory folder to the right of the screen or you can launch the template using the Template Launcher Protocol from your F12 key - add the zTemplate launcher: Respiratory protocol).


All the Ardens Chronic Disease Templates follow the latest NICE guidance and best practice information. This template includes a:


  • National Contracts (QOF/IIF) page for capturing QOF requirements.
  • Asthma Review page for clinicians to record a full asthma review.
  • Lifestyle Review page to capture lifestyle data such as smoking and mental health screening.
  • Investigations and Referrals includes a section to capture requirements for spirometry (will only display for patients coded with Asthma after 1/4/23) and to document referrals and signposting.
  • Asthma Exacerbation page to record details of an exacerbation.
  • Vaccinations page to view and record influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations.
  • Review and Recall page to record an annual or interim review has been completed (necessary if using the Ardens LTC Recall System) and the ability to recall patients for further interim reviews using the Ardens Diary Recall System.
  • Resources page contains contractual information, and helpful links to information for patients and professionals.
  • Template Info/Learning points page providing template information and instructions for use, NICE copyright information and links to appraisal toolkits to enable recording of learning.


Information relating to contract requirements, will be displayed in red and/or denoted by an asterix (*).


Within the National Contracts page, if the indicator has NOT been achieved for this financial year there will be a red cross and red writing will denote action needed.

  


If the indicator has been achieved, there will be a green tick and the writing will no longer be red.




Information will be displayed if a time sensitive indicator has not been achieved and the timeframe has now expired.




The AST011 section will only be visible if relevant to the patient i.e. their asthma diagnosis is on or after 1/4/23.


Please note - the above only applies to the National Contracts page, all contract indicators on additional pages will be displayed with red writing whether or not they have been completed.


For patients presenting with multiple long-term conditions, you may wish to use the Multi-Morbidity Templates.

 

Ardens Asthma Data Quality Alerts

The Ardens resources includes Data Quality Alerts to alert practice staff in real time of incorrect coding or missing QOF requirements. These will ensure that you are entering accurate data to include your Asthma patients on the QOF Asthma register, whilst also alerting you of missing requirements.

 

Asthma but not on asthma register alert

If a patient coded with asthma is not on the asthma QOF register, you may see either of the alerts below:

 

 



 

Asthma Coding alert

When adding a new diagnosis of asthma, an alert will display reminding you of the testing required for QOF:

 


 

Asthma resolved but on inhalers alert

The following alert will display when adding an ‘asthma resolved’ code to a patients record who has been issued asthma medication in the last 3 months:

 


 

Asthma review incomplete alert

When adding an asthma review code, if there are elements of the review missing for QOF the following alert will display:

  


Wrong asthma code alert

If entereing a non QOF compliant asthma code to the patients record the following alert will display:

  

 

 

Ardens Clinical Safety alerts

The Ardens resources includes Clinical Safety Alerts  to flag important MHRA drug safety and NICE guidance information that may be missed. The alerts are triggered on certain activity in the patient record e.g. entering a particular code or prescribing specific drugs.

 

Beta blocker asthma alert

If you issue a betablocker to a patient on the Asthma QOF register, this alert will remind you of the BTS/SIGN guidance:

  

 

NPSA steroid card alert

We have an NPSA steroid card pop up alert to notify you if an at-risk patient has not had a card issued within the last 3 years and enables you to issue the card. This is triggered when issuing steroid medication (oral, rectal, inhaled but NOT topical).

 

 

You will then be presented with a multiple-choice question:

 

 


Selecting the Print NHS steroid emergency card option will launch the Ardens Corticosteroid Monitoring document:

 

 

Select Print > Save and Close to save to the patients records.

 

Ardens Asthma Searches

There are various searches that might be useful when monitoring asthma – these include:

  • Ardens LTC Recall System - a month of birth recall system, designed to recall a patient for multiple QOF conditions at once.  These searches will ensure your Asthma patients are attending their annual review.  
  • Diary Recall System - allows practice staff to easily manage diary recalls for blood tests, injections, procedures, and follow-ups, including Asthma interim reviews.
  • QOF Misc Searches - includes searches to identify patients that have not had the full elements of their review.
  • Asthma and COPD Safety Searches -  includes searches to identify asthmatic or COPD patients who may need extra care and attention.
  • Chronic Disease Risk Stratification Searches – searches to enable practices to prioritise reviews for high-risk Asthma patients. 
  • Ardens Case Finders -  contains a suite of searches to support practices to improve data quality and ensure QOF payments are correctly calculated for your Asthma patients.  

 
Asthma Document Templates

There are documents that may be useful in the care of Asthmatic patients, particularly the SMART asthma action plan.


To access documents, click on Add > Document > Create Letter in the patient record. Select the magnify glass and search for the document using the search box provided or folder navigation pane (Ardens National Documents > Care Planning folder).


 



If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk