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Research |
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Community Asthma Initiative improves outcomes
Asthma is the leading cause of hospitalizations and Emergency Department visits at Children?s. In July 2005, the hospital launched the Community Asthma Initiative, providing Boston families from four urban zip codes with nurse case managers who coordinate primary and allergist care; home visits, including environmental assessment, pest management and asthma education; and connection to community resources. Now, parent-reported data for 314 patients, gathered before and after enrollment, indicate remarkably improved health outcomes.
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ED Visits
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69%
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22%
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23%
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Hospitalizations
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51%
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12%
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65%
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Missed School
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95%
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NA
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56%
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Most of the children were from low-income, minority families on Medicaid. The percentage of parents reporting any ED visits in the prior six months dropped significantly.
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The percentage of children with current asthma action plans increased from 45.7 to 86 percent at 12 months. Study leader Elizabeth Woods, MD, MPH, director of the Community Asthma Initiative and associate chief of the Division of Adolescent/ Young Adult Medicine, reported the findings at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in May. She and her colleagues plan to use the data to guide legislative advocacy by Children?s to support and finance similar enhanced asthma care models statewide.
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