ACMH, ArmsCare donate nebulizers to schools for students with asthma

FORD CITY -- Donors have given the Armstrong School District 13 medical devices to help students with severe asthma get the treatment they need in school. Thanks to a donation from the ACMH Foundation and ArmsCare, Inc., all 13 schools in the Armstrong School District have a respiratory treatment device called a nebulizer in each school nurse's office. The total equipment value of the donation is about $2,600.
"Nebulizers help students with asthma in severe cases when hand-held inhalers aren't strong enough to open constricted airways," said Alyssa Miller, a nurse at Kittanning Area Middle School.
A nebulizer is a special container that holds liquid medicine. The container is attached to tubing and to an air compressor. Patients use a face mask or mouthpiece to inhale a fine mist medication, such as albuterol, deep into their lungs. In about 15 minutes, the medicine opens their airways so that the person can breathe easily again.
"Having the nebulizer at school will reassure parents that their children will get the treatment they need in a timely manner," Miller said. "The sooner the treatment is started, the less the student is in respiratory distress. It will also prevent students from having to leave school in the middle of the day to get a treatment at home."


Miller called school physician Dr. Hal Altman to talk about how having nebulizers in schools would help students with severe asthma miss fewer classes. Altman is also the medical director at the East Franklin-based hospital, and he got in touch with the ACMH Foundation, a charitable arm of the hospital.
The foundation raises money through an annual golf outing and its trustees decided that buying 10 nebulizers for Armstrong School District would be a perfect fit with its mission to promote health and wellness in Armstrong County, Altman said. Medical products company ArmsCare, Inc., also donated three machines.
"It's difficult and expensive for a family to have a nebulizer at home and one in school," Altman said. Many families' health insurance plans provide just one nebulizer that usually stays at home because it's too awkward for a student to take to school.
A team of employees working under the auspices of the Medical Home Project at Children's Community Pediatrics/Armstrong also helped by making numerous phone calls to parents, insurance companies and school officials.
"For a kindergartener or a first-grader to carry a machine like this to school every day is almost impossible," said Shelley Eckman, a Children's Community Pediatrics/Armstrong employee who led the charge as a care coordinator with the Medical Home Project, a joint effort of the PA American Academy of Pediatrics, the PA Department of Health and the PA Elks Nursing Association designed to meet the needs of special needs patients.
To ensure sanitation, students who use a nebulizer will have their own mouthpiece and tubing to attach to the machine. The parents will be responsible for bringing their child's medication, prescription and tubing from their physician to school, in accordance with school district medication policy as found in the student handbook.