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By LISA EISENHAUER

SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City is making it possible for a nonprofit organization to put asthma inhalers in every public school in the Sooner State.

The hospital, part of St. Louis-based SSM Health, is giving $192,568 through a grant and in-kind donations to the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation. The foundation is using the gifts to provide Oklahoma's 539 public school districts with at least one inhaler and related supplies for every school, about 1,600 in all.

Jen Blair, the foundation's executive director, says Oklahoma will be the first state in the nation to have asthma inhalers in every public school. Blair credits SSM Health St. Anthony's support for propelling the work of the foundation "in ways that we dreamed of but weren't sure was actually going to happen."

Tragedy spurs action
The Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation is named for a 16-year-old who died after an asthma attack in 2012. Blair is the first cousin of Brendon's mother, Lori McClarty, though she says they are closer than most sisters and she considered Brendon her nephew.

On the day of his fatal attack, the last day of school in his sophomore year, Brendon was home alone after football practice. During the attack, he was without oxygen for about 20 minutes. He died three days later at a hospital in Oklahoma City.

"Obviously it was just a horrific tragedy for our family," Blair says. "He was so young."

In hopes of helping other children with asthma and their families, Brendon's family set up the nonprofit memorial foundation. Its goal is to fight the disease through education and awareness.

Putting inhalers within reach
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls asthma a chronic disease that requires ongoing medical management. It afflicts about 6 million U.S. children ages 17 and under. About 16% of Black children have asthma as do about 7% of white children. The federal agency reports that because of better asthma treatments and care, the number of fatal attacks, missed school days and hospital stays are down.

Andrew Ochs, regional vice president of mission integration for SSM Health Oklahoma, says increasing access to health care was one of the community needs identified in SSM Health St. Anthony's assessment. Ochs says that by supporting the work of the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation, the hospital is helping to meet that need by putting asthma supplies within reach of more people.

He says the system sees the inhaler distribution as a step toward increasing access to education, too, "because kiddos aren't having to miss school and parents aren't having to take time off of work to come and deliver an inhaler or take a kiddo home or, God forbid, a kiddo ends up having to go to the emergency room because she or he doesn't have access to their inhaler." Ochs was one of CHA's 2022 Tomorrow's Leaders.

In addition, Ochs says SSM Health St. Anthony sees part of its mission to be meeting the needs of people in the rural areas of the state so that they can stay there and thrive, as did its founding congregation, the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville. The order later reunited with its original congregation, becoming the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.

By supporting distribution of the inhalers and related asthma supplies well beyond its own urban and suburban service area, Ochs says the hospital is ensuring that rural children with asthma aren't overlooked. He says SSM Health St. Anthony is hopeful that the state eventually will step in to take over funding the asthma supplies in schools.

Ochs says that working with established community groups such as the Brendon McLarty Memorial Foundation helps SSM Health accomplish its community health-related work. Those groups, he says, bring expertise and passion to their efforts. Meanwhile, having their projects co-branded with SSM Health adds credibility to their work, he says.

"We're more than happy to help in that regard," Ochs says.

Supplies and training
Before the foundation started supplying inhalers to schools, it advocated for Oklahoma lawmakers to pass a law making it legal for schools to have the prescription medication on site. The lawmakers passed the law unanimously and it was signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2019. The American Lung Association says 17 states now have either laws or guidelines allowing schools to stock quick-relief medication for students with asthma.

In Oklahoma, schools can keep up to two inhalers in secure locations. In addition, the school nurse or another employee must undergo training on the proper storage and use of the inhalers. Each inhaler can provide about 200 puffs.

The first school district to get the inhalers was Perry Public Schools, a rural district in Northern Oklahoma where Brendon was a student. By the time COVID-19 hit in early 2020, the foundation had provided inhalers to 11 districts, but the pandemic put a halt to the distribution.

Blair says the foundation got a boost when a man who works for the Oklahoma State Department of Education contacted the nonprofit and asked how he could help. The man previously had been a coach and once lost a player to an asthma attack. That connection led to the department's endorsement of the inhaler project. "At that point, it really took off," Blair says.

The department worked with the foundation to get the word out among districts about the free inhalers and to offer training on the use of the inhalers by video in a session that lasts about 40 minutes. At some schools, Blair says, the training is offered to everyone on staff on professional development days.

Measurable success
To date, the inhalers and related supplies — such as disposable spacers that direct the flow of the medication — are in about half of Oklahoma's schools. Blair says the foundation is hopeful of getting them in all public schools by the end of the next school year.

In addition to the purchase of inhalers, the grant from SSM Health St. Anthony has enabled the foundation to upgrade its software so it can track the distribution and use of the inhalers. In the school year that just ended, Blair says the inhalers were used at least 1,500 times and in 83% of cases, the students involved were able to return to class.

The foundation references SSM Health as its "premier sponsor." And support has flowed both ways. The foundation donates proceeds from its own fundraising events — including an annual baseball tournament — for a Brendon McLarty Memorial Asthma Fund overseen by the St. Anthony Hospital Foundation. The fund pays for asthma supplies for families in need of them.

Of SSM Health's support for the inhaler distribution to schools, Blair says: "It's definitely expanded our program in more ways than we could have ever imagined."