Barriers & Hurdles when Establishing a Severe Asthma Clinic
Several barriers and hurdles need to be considered when establishing a severe asthma clinic.
These can include people resources, such as the clinician’s time and availability, access to suitably qualified specialist health care professionals, appropriate administration support, access to pharmacists.
Physical resources can also provide a barrier to setting up a severe asthma clinic such as access to physical space, access to equipment (such as spirometry), and access to add-on therapies (such as the monoclonal antibody therapies).
Health care system structure may add an additional layer of complexity determining referral pathways and initial referral generation after the establishment of a new clinic. In addition, eligibility for claiming from the Medicare Benefits Schedule and/or Activity Based Funding will need to be determined before the clinic commences.
Patient related factors may also provide a barrier to the successful implementation of the severe asthma clinic. Patient factors can include poor uptake by patients due to an inconvenient location, transportation issues, waiting list, cost, and/or clinic hours/flexibility.
Which barriers are relevant and how they can be overcome will be dependent on the local context and environment.
