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Audrey Collins’ two daughters were diagnosed with asthma as infants. When they had trouble breathing, she would use a nebulizer machine with a tiny attachment for their faces. “And if it didn’t get better, I’d take her to the emergency room. And we were in there a lot,” Collins said, during a recent visit with her daughters to a mobile asthma clinic parked outside their pediatrician’s office in north St. Louis. One in five children in north St. Louis city and north St. Louis County are diagnosed with asthma; pediatricians here say it’s their top issue of focus. Poor air quality, restricted access to preventive care and low socioeconomic conditions all appear to be exacerbated in those areas, making pediatric asthma rates twice as high as the statewide average, according to new numbers from the Missouri Hospital Association. When children’s asthma gets out of control, they often wind up in the emergency room, creating an emotional (and often financial) toll on their families. (Bouscaren, 8/6)

"Super-utilizers are the frequent fliers of the health care system, whose serious illnesses send them to the hospital multiple times every year and cost the system hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Figuring out how best to address these patients’ needs and reduce their financial impact on the health care system is a subject of intense interest among policymakers. Now a new study has found that, in contrast to the notion that “once a super-utilizer, always a super-utilizer,” many patients who use health care services intensely do so for a relatively brief period of time. (Andrews, 8/7)