Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/731691
40 POPULATION HEALTH e project included 41 families with asthmatic children and exam- ined their environment. Participants were able to improve heating and air systems, remove the causes of mold, eliminate pests, battle dust mites and improve cleaning methods in the homes of asth- matic children. As a result, Cone Health saw fewer asthma attacks which resulted in less rescue medication use and fewer trips to the ED. e housing interventions showed a substantial reduction in hospital costs/charges from $8,650 per pediatric patient with asthma before the intervention to $4,100 per patient aer — a 52.6 percent reduction. Patients who returned to the hospital with asthma and non-asthma related issues, as well as patients who didn't return to the hospital were all included in the study. e post-intervention hos- pital treatment for asthma services also reduced costs per pediatric patient from $9,607 on average to $1,199, an 82.5 percent reduction in hospital costs. Children reported sleeping better and parents were less stressed worrying about their children and missed fewer days of work to care for their asthmatic child. FirstHealth of the Carolinas in Montgomery County, N.C., be- gan FirstReach, a diabetic outreach initiative, in 2007. The hos- pital created the program in response to Community Health Assessment data showing high diabetes mortality in the county. FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, FirstHealth Montgomery Memorial Hospital, FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital — a division of Moore Regional Hospital — and FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Hoke Campus are participating in the program. FirstHealth leveraged resources and developed interventions to improve diabetic health outcomes. The American Hospital Associ- ation awarded FirstReach the NOVA Award in 2014. Genesis Healthcare System in Zanesville, Ohio, began focusing on improved care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients aer CMS added COPD to the Medicare readmissions penalties list. Genesis worked with its advisory board to develop the COPD Navigator Program so all patients received necessary care post-dis- charge. e program includes nurses who work with COPD patients to coordinate care between different clinicians, such as physicians, pharmacists, dietitians and respiratory therapists. e program also provides education and disease management. Genesis reported a 34 percent decrease in 30-day hospital readmissions for COPD patients and avoided more than $500,000 in charges over a six-month period. Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, Fla., undertook a project decades ago to align community leaders around measurable goals to improve healthcare and the health delivery system in Lee County, Fla. The project grew into The Healthy Lee Initiative. The collaboration is now led by 60 members and has a distribution list of 300 active participants. Its goals include promoting healthy life- styles, primary care alternatives to the ED, chronic disease preven- tion and management, behavioral health and public engagement. Healthy Lee won the 2015 Gage Award for Population Health from America's Essential Hospitals. Mercy Health System based in Janesville, Wis., and serving Wis- consin and Illinois partnered with Mercy Physician Network and Mercy Accountable Care to integrate a social work and community health worker dyad model in one of the most socioeconomical- ly disadvantaged areas the system serves. The program is imple- mented in the system's West Philadelphia community to eliminate barriers to health and wellness, including transportation issues, financial restraints, behavioral health and substance abuse. The program deploys a licensed social worker and non-clinical com- munity health worker to serve as resources for the ACO's RN care manager and embedded population health nurse. The social work- er and community health worker assess social issues relevant to the most vulnerable patients and visit those patients in their home to help relay pertinent information back to the clinical team to better serve the patients. Montefiore Health System in New York employed the "Shop Healthy" campaign with its offices of community and population health. e health system used its own data on obesity trends in the Bronx and identified a few specific neighborhoods that would benefit from target- ed initiatives to improve access to healthier food and preventive health- care. In April, the Bronx borough president honored two of the local markets for selling healthier food to help people with restrictive diets due to diabetes, hypertension and/or obesity. Nemours Children's Health System's Jessup St. Clinic, an urban pedi- atric primary care practice serving Wilmington, Del., enacted multiple initiatives in concert with Nemours Health and Prevention Services. e hospital's patient coordinator Michael DiSalvo, a social worker by training, coordinates the programs, which include a resource room with computers, internet access and books for adults and children to use for homework, job searching, diagnosis research or improved lit- eracy. ere is also a community health worker and staff psychologist available onsite. e hospital serves breakfast to children and their families over the summer and has a weekly onsite farm stand where people can purchase fresh produce. e hospital partners with local churches and the Boys and Girls Club to increase safety for children and their families, and sends a community health worker to home vis- its for patients with asthma to address environmental stressors. NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill., is devel- oping and implementing testing methods for patients most sus- ceptible to inherited cancers. NorthShore researchers developed a highly validated Generic Risk Score performed on a small sample of either blood or saliva to provide personalized risk assessment for prostate, breast, colorectal and other major cancers. The system is also part of several large international studies trying to identify pa- tients susceptible to aggressive forms of prostate cancer and efforts to understand the inherited risk associated with genes passed from generation to generation. St. Joseph Hoag Health Wellness Corner in Irvine, Calif., focus- es on preventive healthcare services for business and residential communities. Services include physical examinations, minor illness treatment, telehealth, medical aesthetics, travel medicine and lab services. There are also lifestyle management and health and well- ness programs available onsite, including yoga, sleep improvement and personalized weight and fitness management. The program also includes nutrition coaching and menu planning. The center reports 60 percent of users saved two or more hours by having pre- ventative healthcare available at the office and 92 percent report saving an hour or more of actual work time by visiting the Wellness Corner instead of their primary care physician. n