Asthma, allergy, and upper airway disease.

The practitioner must be aware of the strong interrelationship between asthma, allergy, eczema, otitis media, viral upper respiratory infection, and sinusitis. When allergy, eczema, otitis media (particularly after the age of 2 years), viral upper respiratory infection, or sinusitis is present in a patient, asthma must be considered as possible sequelae. If a patient has symptoms of intermittent or persistent asthma, consideration must be given to the presence of allergy, eczema, otitis media, viral upper respiratory infection, or sinusitis as comorbid conditions or possible triggers for the asthma symptoms.

CNS development of health maintenance programs: quality improvement and cost reduction.

Several outpatient health maintenance programs were developed by CNSs that resulted in quality improvement and cost savings. Common implementation strategies, barriers to implementation, marketing issues and techniques, and revenue generation issues were found. An outpatient consultation model was used to expand enterostomal therapy and diabetic teaching services.