The University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) is a non-profit health care provider serving 12,214 adults and children with asthma in Southeastern Michigan. Since 2005, the UMHS Quality Improvement Steering Committee, a group of multidisciplinary volunteers, has guided improvements in asthma care across the health system. UMHS provides specific, population-based programs for high-risk asthma populations and in-home asthma education through the Michigan Visiting Nurses Asthma Home Environmental Assessment Program. Web-based, standardized NHLBI-compatible guidelines are available to all providers, including standardized asthma action plans and education templates. A comprehensive, validated, all-payer database of asthma patients helps UMHS identify areas of need for targeting interventions and assessing outcomes. As a result of these programs, UMHS achieved a 50 percent decrease in asthma-related hospitalizations among participants in the Children’s Asthma Wellness Program from July 2005 to June 2007. Between June 2006 and June 2007, participants in the home assessment program had a 60 percent decline in ED visits and an 85 percent decrease in hospitalizations.
Elizabeth Cotsworth, then Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, U.S. EPA, and Beth Craig, then Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, EPA, and Chris Draft, then NFL player, present Award to (from left to right) Karla Grossman, Dr. Annie Sy, Dr. Steven Bernstein, DeAnn Vansickle, and Dr. Georgiana Sanders, of the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS)