Intermountain Children’s Health has launched a new pediatric asthma initiative designed to help children receive more timely, consistent, and evidence-based care closer to home.
Salt Lake City, UT (PRUnderground) July 16th, 2026
Children with asthma can now access more timely, evidence-based care closer to home through a new pediatric asthma initiative from Intermountain Children’s Health.
The goal of the new initiative is to help kids breathe easier, avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, and return to the activities they love.
The Intermountain initiative builds on proven asthma care practices at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, where changes in emergency medicine treatment has helped avoid about one in four hospitalizations for children with asthma.
Intermountain Children’s Health caregivers are now working to expand the same standard of care across other emergency departments at hospitals, urgent care clinics, and KidsCare clinics throughout Utah.
Asthma attacks can be frightening for children and their families.
During an attack, airways tighten, swell, and fill with mucus, making it difficult to breathe. Without the right treatment early, children may need emergency care, hospital admission, or transfer to a higher level of care.
To address this condition, Intermountain Children’s Health caregivers developed a standardized approach that helps care teams treat asthma symptoms quickly and consistently, regardless of where a child receives care.
“By acting quickly, caregivers can stabilize symptoms sooner, prevent escalation and transfers that take a child far from home, and reduce the need for hospital admission.,” said Mike Johnson, MD, a pediatrician in the emergency department at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and asthma advocate. “We want caregivers to have every tool they need to start treatment sooner, when it can have the greatest impact.”
The initiative focuses on early treatment for children experiencing moderate to severe asthma attacks.
As part of this care process model, caregivers administer critical medications, including oral steroids, along with breathing treatments such as albuterol, as early as possible to open airways and reduce inflammation before hospitalization becomes necessary.
The work is already improving pediatric asthma care in emergency departments and the urgent care clinics across Utah.
At Intermountain Health, approximately 70% of the children with asthma in emergency departments now receive an oral steroid within 60 minutes of arrival. This early intervention is helping kids get the right treatment closer to home.
In urgent care and KidsCare clinics across Utah, care teams are working to give steroids before albuterol treatment whenever appropriate.
This gives the steroid more time to work, may help reduce vomiting after treatment, and can help prevent a child from needing a transfer to an emergency department or hospital for admission.
More than 80% of children now receive a steroid before other treatments are started.
Together, these changes are helping more children receive the right care sooner and avoid unnecessary hospital stays. As the work expands to more sites, Intermountain Children’s Health leaders expect to prevent about one-fourth of asthma-related hospitalizations and transfers.
“The biggest win is that children across the state of Utah can now receive the same high standard of care in any Intermountain Health emergency department, urgent care clinic, or KidsCare location that they would get at Primary Children’s Hospital,” said Angelene Hunt, pediatric acute care clinical program manager for Intermountain Children’s Health.
The initiative also extends beyond hospital walls. Intermountain Health is partnering with local first responders, including South Davis Metro Fire, to begin treatment even before children arrive at the hospital.
“We’ve partnered with South Davis Metro Fire, so children can receive medications like oral steroids and effective breathing treatments before they get to the emergency department,” said Tanner Trujillo, director of respiratory care services operations for pediatrics at Intermountain Health.
The initiative first launched in Intermountain Health clinics in Utah and is already showing promise as a scalable model for pediatric asthma care. Leaders now plan to expand the approach across the health system’s multi-state service area, so more children have access to timely, evidence-based care close to home.
About Intermountain Health
Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 34 hospitals, approximately 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a nonprofit health plan called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https://news.intermountainhealth.org/. For more information, see intermountainhealth.org/ or call 801-442-2000.
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