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Asthma Action Plans (AAPs) are written plans developed specifically for each patient in partnership with the health care provider, providing instructions for asthma management ranging from daily actions, such as what kind of medication to take and when, to guidance on when to call your doctor or go to the emergency room. These plans are a key component of helping bring a patient’s asthma under control—and keeping it that way.

And when the plans are not understood, the result can mean increased visits to the emergency department and hospitalizations, which are a strain and financial drain on families and health care providers, not to mention the physical and emotional toll that they take on the person with asthma.

These resources include a Spanish-language Asthma Action Plan, and seek to train both the Latino parents of children with asthma and the community health workers/promotores who reach many of them.

The community health improvement (CHI) process brings together health care, public health, and other stakeholders to identify and address the health needs of communities—because working together has a greater impact on health and economic vitality than working alone.

Below are examples—organized by initiative type—of how hospitals have successfully engaged in collaborative, innovative work to improve the health of their patients and others in their communities. Hospitals are not doing this work alone; they are addressing critical health issues with public health, social services, and other partners in their communities. Several hospitals initiated these activities as a result of findings from their community health needs assessments (CHNAs). Many undertook community-based initiatives to address the needs of patients who are often clustered geographically and who interact frequently with the healthcare system (super utilizers).

Several of these examples are cutting edge initiatives that are demonstrating promising early results. A few can be found in the CHI Navigator Database of Interventions . Most of these examples highlight the impact of this kind of work on the financial bottom line, which is important as the health care system moves to value-based payments.

Check out this funny and educational clip on pollen and climate change with Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America. Watch the latest full episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Along Came Pollen: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/kjc2ca/along-came-pollen