Wheeze/asthma referral checklist

Urgency tier

• Immediate emergency assessment for severe respiratory distress, hypoxia or poor response to acute therapy; do not wait for an outpatient referral.
• Expedited referral for recurrent exacerbations despite optimized outpatient management.
• Routine referral for persistent uncontrolled symptoms needing specialist optimization.

Minimum pre-referral workup

• Exacerbation frequency, symptom burden, and objective respiratory assessment.
• Inhaler technique/adherence review and trigger assessment.
• Current medication plan and recent response to treatment adjustments.

Referral packet checklist

• Structured timeline of exacerbations, urgent visits, and treatment courses.
• Baseline vitals/oximetry and pertinent testing history.
• Current regimen, adherence barriers, and environmental trigger context.

Pre-referral optimization tasks

• Reinforce action-plan use and return precautions.
• Address inhaler technique and adherence barriers before specialist review.
• Arrange follow-up interval to monitor interim control.

References

• CPS Managing an acute asthma exacerbation in children (opens in a new tab)
• CTS Very mild and mild asthma guideline (2021) (opens in a new tab)

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