Background: Asthma, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia are common pediatric inpatient diagnoses. Viral testing (VT) is not routinely necessary for these diagnoses as it often does not impact management. Our study objectives for each diagnosis are to; 1) describe trends in VT over the last 5 years including seasonal variation (respiratory season- Oct-March versus non-respiratory season- April-Sept), […]

Background: Uncontrolled asthma leading to emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalization causes suffering, disproportionately among underserved patients, and are costly to healthcare systems. Timely treatment and adherence to clinical guidelines via serial monitoring of patients’ reported symptoms, offers the opportunity to improve health outcomes that are important to patients, clinicians, and accountable care organizations (ACO). […]

Case Presentation: A 78-year-old woman with severe persistent asthma on a maximum dose of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was admitted for lethargy and skin nodules on her thighs. She had three hospital admissions in the past two months for reported pneumonia. She was found to have fever, left basilar crackles, and multiple violaceous, firm, tender subcutaneous […]