For Professionals

A physician's office can schedule a patient appointment directly with the Asthma Center. To schedule a clinic visit, please follow the steps below:

1. Complete an Asthma Center Referral Form
We must have a physician-signed request prior to any patient being seen in clinic. The form should be printed clearly.
*For Pulmonary Function Testing only, complete the Asthma Center Referral Form and the Pulmonary Function order form.

2. Verify Patient Demographic and Insurance Information

3. Fax the completed Referral Form(s) to 404-785-9870

4. Call 404-785-5475 to Schedule the Appointment
A physician's office can schedule a patient appointment directly with the Asthma Center, or the family can contact the clinic directly to schedule an appointment.

AssessingAsthmaControl

In the next few months, pediatricians will experience an increase in well-child visits and requests for sports clearance forms. This presents an excellent opportunity to assess asthmatic patients for asthma control and encourage them to be more active. While symptoms may not have been serious enough to warrant a doctor's visit during the year, it is possible their asthma was not well controlled.

During this assessment, physicians should obtain information on activity limitation, frequency of bronchodilator use and frequency of oral steroid bursts (especially those prescribed by on-call physicians or provided by urgent care centers). If a patient has required bronchodilator (or had symptoms) >2 times/month or oral steroids > 2 times/year, their asthma is not in control and their current therapy should be adjusted.

It is challenging to diagnose and manage patients who only experience shortness of breath or coughing with increased activity, especially if they are self-limiting activity. In this instance, lung function tests can effectively assess the role asthma is playing in the limitation. Fully body plethysmography and bronchoprovocation testing is available at each Children's Healthcare of Atlanta campus. Compared to simple spirometry, these tests provide a more comprehensive evaluation of hyperinflation, total lung capacity and bronchial hyper-reactivity. This may be the only accurate way to diagnosis asthma or assess control in patients who are elite athletes, obese, poor perceivers or deconditioned.

The Children's Asthma Center at Hughes Spalding offers evaluations (in 1-2 visits) that include identification of triggers, full lung testing and asthma education for patients having difficulty controlling their symptoms. Call 404-785-9916 for more information.