Last week, my wife and I had a major scare: Our four-year-old son had his first asthmatic attack late Wednesday night. His racing breath rate, deep chest retractions, and fitful night of sleep had us really worried.

He’s doing fine now, but every time I turn from health information expert to health information consumer (we all are “patients”), I realize just how critical Ix is to high-quality health care.

In many ways, we love our pediatric practice. We were won over by the doctor when–during a very small-group open house/interview we had with him one evening when my wife was first pregnant–he said that he figured he had to either become a pediatrician or a teacher because he loved spending his days with children. It sounds corny, but he always seems that way when our three boys visit with him.

The practice also has its own nurse call line (available only during business hours) that is great for answering all kinds of routine questions or whether something deserves a visit, etc. And, the practice (about 7 pediatricians) really encourages to call the on-call physician if we have any concerns off-hours.

Of course, we did last Wednesday–and the doc called us right back at 10:30pm. She walked us through many important issues over about 10 minutes (and even called us back the next morning from her cell phone on her way back into the office).

In the office visit the next day (and the one the following day to check on Ryan’s progress), the doctors definitely took adequate time to answer all my questions (that I could think of at the moment anyway) and provided compassionate, thorough care.

But questions did come up: How do we know whether to give the albuterol as symptoms gradually seem to subside? Once it rained (presumably lowering the pollen count), how much do we still try to shield him from the outdoor allergens while he’s still recovering? How long should we expect to remain more fatigued from his somewhat acute event? How much of his extra “enthusiasm” (euphemism) should we attribute to side effects?

A lot of these questions probably would have been predictable. In fact, other parents of kids with asthma have told me in the last few days that these questions arose for them. Although I might not have wanted all the answers during the office visit, it sure would have been nice to have access to the specific questions at later moments in care.

And, now, the long-term questions are bubbling to the surface: What are the chances that this was a one-time event triggered by extreme pollen vs. a chronic condition (or somewhere in between)? What might give us clues along the way to answer that question? How close should we keep Ryan to his nebulizer as the pollen count goes back up?

My information needs change as Ryan’s condition changes, and I need Ix targeted to that moment in care. Despite the great care that we received from our pediatricians, there still are a lot of information gaps.

Let’s hope the care delivery system makes it easier for me and my clinicians to help Ryan better in the future.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.