According to CDC and The American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (check out THAT acronym!), children with asthma should be kept up to date with their flu shots.

So, Igor and I set off to see how well pediatricians do this for our clinical dashboard (write me for the name/password).  And we were surprised at how low the marks are.  We wonder what we are missing, perhaps someone here can enlighten me?

Igor looked through all our practices and counted up all the kids who had been diagnosed with asthma in the last three years.  He excluded all the known inactives, etc.

Then, he looked at those kids and counted how many have had a flu shot in the last twelve months.  Yes, we realize that we should probably make the time frame tighter to reflect this year’s flu shot, but we had to start somewhere.

The results?  36%.  Yes, one of three kids with asthma have had a flu shot recorded by our clients in the past year.  It ranges from a low of 3% or so (we figure on mis-configuration) to a high of nearly 75% (Kathy Cain, you reading?  Good work!).

Anyone want to tell me why the rates aren’t higher?  Don’t worry, PCC clients, I would never out you (except to congratulate).  What are we missing?  Why do so few asthmatic kids get their flu shots?