National Jewish Asthma Management Program Decreases Medical Needs, Increases Quality of Life’ for Medicaid, Commercial Health Care Population Patients

DENVER-People with moderate to severe asthma spend less time in the hospital and the emergency room, use less steroids and miss fewer days of work, school or daycare after participating in Disease Specific Case Management through National Jewish Medical and Research Center, according to David Tinkelman, M.D.

In addition, Medicaid and commercial health care patients significantly improved their overall quality of life and mood, lessened moments of breathlessness, and had strong appreciation and satisfaction with Disease Specific Case Management (DSCM).

"Helping people feel better is the goal of the doctors and nurses at National Jewish," says Dr. Tinkelman, vice president, Health Initiatives at National Jewish. "The nurse and the patient are a team working to control, and ultimately defeat, asthma."

DSCM at National Jewish includes regular telephone contact between a patient and a registered nurse, who assesses the patient’s medical needs and, if necessary, contacts the patient’s physician with treatment recommendations. National Jewish has DSCM contracts with 10 health plans in more than 10 states.

Personal contact is important to the people who use the program. "When I asked the nurses questions, I got answers I understood," one patient in the program says.

The following changes occurred in Medicaid and commercial health care populations after six months in the National Jewish DSCM program.

Medicaid patients · Hospitalizations down 50 percent · Emergency room visits down 61 percent · Steroid bursts (used to treat an emergency asthma attack) down 48 percent · Days missed from work/school/daycare by the patient and/or caregiver down 68 percent

Commercial health care population patients
· Hospitalizations down 72 percent
· Emergency room visits down 77 percent
· Steroid bursts (used to treat an emergency asthma attack) down 54 percent
· Days missed from work/school/daycare by the patient and/or caregiver down 81 percent

For more information about DSCM, call LUNG LINE, (800) 222-LUNG.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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