Community in Action

Bethlehem Partnership for a Healthy Community – The Asthma Initiative

Winner Blurb: 

Based on the premise that strong patient-provider interaction is key to asthma management, the Bethlehem Partnership for a Healthy Community identifies and educates high-risk children and their families through the school system, improves access to preventive services and care, and provides up-to-date asthma education to the medical community. In partnership with St. Luke’s Hospital and the Bethlehem Area School District, the initiative helps to manage asthma through multiple access points: school-based health clinics, Open Airways Programs, mobile school health clinics, and St. Luke’s Hospital Clinic. The program educates and supports clinical care teams by providing annual education and training to health care providers and coalition partners. Patient education includes multiple, bilingual home visits and thorough patient follow-up. Working with the Bethlehem Health Bureau, the initiative evaluates homes for environmental triggers while distributing trigger-reducing items (such as mattress covers and green cleaning supplies), provides one-on-one education to families, and assists tenants in contacting landlords in order to correct mold and cockroach issues. Through a successful partnership with Lehigh University, the program expanded to address outdoor air quality during the home visit survey. The initiative has proven to be effective: From 2007-2008, multiple asthma-related pediatric emergency department visits for individual patients decreased by 56 percent.

Winnner Photo: 
Winner Photo Caption: 

Gina McCarthy, then Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. EPA, and Lisa Jackson, then Administrator, U.S. EPA, present Award to (left to right) Mary Mittl, Susan Madeja and Elizabeth Roth of the Bethlehem Partnership for a Healthy Community – The Asthma Initiative

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WIN for Asthma, New York Presbyterian Hospital

Winner Blurb: 

In 2005, a local hospital and community partners applied the principles of community- based participatory research to develop the Washington Heights Inwood Network (WIN) for Asthma. This comprehensive program is designed to facilitate effective and sustainable asthma management in Northern Manhattan, a community with childhood asthma rates that are four times the national average. WIN is a multi-level, community-driven program that enhances case identification and follow-up for children. Through collaboration with key partners, including local day care centers, schools, clinics and community-based organizations, WIN provides community-wide asthma screening and education. Once families are enrolled in the program, bilingual community health workers offer family-focused asthma education, address household triggers, and link families to the clinical and social resources needed to facilitate effective and sustainable asthma management. By engaging and supporting local providers through the delivery of the evidence-based intervention, Physician Asthma Care Education (PACE), WIN works to ensure providers adhere to the latest asthma guidelines, resulting in improved quality of care. Through a partnership with the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality, WIN developed a comprehensive protocol for post-PACE provider support involving practice-based support. Through collaboration with multiple hospital divisions, the launch of a grassroots marketing campaign, and the development of a long-term business plan, WIN has worked to increase its visibility and successfully sustain its program. WIN’s program success is demonstrated in data collected from Community Health Workers (CHWs): Over a 3-year period, the number of asthma related emergency department visits and hospitalizations decreased by more than 50 percent; caregivers’ confidence in controlling their children’s asthma increased by 40 percent; and asthma-related school absenteeism decreased by 30 percent.

Winnner Photo: 
Winner Photo Caption: 

Gina McCarthy, then Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. EPA, and Mike Flynn, Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, U.S. EPA, present Award to (from left to right) Robyn Scherer, Patricia Peretz and Dr. Luz Adriana Matiz of WIN for Asthma, New York Presbyterian Hospital

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Sinai Urban Health Institute

Winner Blurb: 

Since 2000, the Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI) and Sinai Children’s Hospital (SCH) have partnered to reduce the burden of asthma on vulnerable Chicago communities. As many as one in four children living in the communities served by the Sinai Health System suffer from asthma, as revealed by the Sinai Improving Community Health Survey. Recognizing the disproportionate asthma burden faced by these communities, a series of four comprehensive asthma interventions have been conducted over the past 10 years. Each of these initiatives has focused on decreasing asthma-related morbidity and improving participants’ quality of life by utilizing Community Health Workers (CHW)— members of the community trained to deliver case-specific asthma education through home visits. With funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SUHI and SCH initiated a comprehensive, multifaceted program in September 2008, called Healthy Home, Healthy Child: The Westside Children’s Asthma Partnership (HHHC). This unique program draws from the strengths of its collaborations with partner organizations and community members to address medical, social and environmental factors of asthma. At the heart of this program is the CHW, who provides one-on-one asthma education and environmental trigger reduction counseling to families in their homes. The CHWs also serve as a liaison between the family and medical system. Cost savings analyses and evaluations of these programs have enabled SUHI to demonstrate the approach’s value, proving that the program was a wise investment. Since the inception of the SUHI Pediatric Asthma Programs, there has been on average a 50 percent reduction in frequency of symptoms experienced by children (50.4 percent – 63.6 percent) and significant declines in asthma-related emergency department visits (47.6 percent – 73.5 percent) and hospitalizations (50.0 percent – 81.0 percent). In addition, the SUHI Pediatric Asthma Model has been replicated in other areas around Illinois.

Winnner Photo: 
Winner Photo Caption: 

Gina McCarthy, then Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. EPA, and Mike Flynn, Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, U.S. EPA, present Award to (from left to right) Gloria Seals, Helen Margellos-Anast and Melissa A. Gutierrez of the Sinai Urban Health Institute

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