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Personalized Care Helps Members with Asthma Breathe with Ease

On May 4, World Asthma Day, health and environmental organizations worldwide will sponsor activities and events to call attention to the burden of asthma.

For Janet Carpenter, a KP Hawaii member, World Asthma Day will also be a day to breathe a sigh of relief. Over the past four years, she has learned to manage her asthma through a combination of long-term relief medication and trigger avoidance. As a result, she is able to spend more time outdoors and fewer days home from work.

"I used to use my inhaler every day," she said. "I didn't even realize that I wasn't supposed to. Now I use my inhaler about once a month. I feel dramatically better than I did four years ago"

Carpenter is just one of thousands of KP members who have experienced improved health since KP launched its national integrated asthma program, supported by the Care Management Institute, in 1997. The recently released clinical quality report on Persistent Asthma at KP indicates that Programwide, adult members with asthma are 21 percent less likely to be hospitalized because of their disease than they were six years ago (30.4 percent for children) and 48 percent less likely to visit an emergency room (40 percent for children).

"KP's systematic approach to asthma care has brought substantial improvement in performance measures since our national program began," said Alide Chase, vice president for Quality, Safety and Service. "That translates to a higher quality of life for our members."

KP's national program, based on successful practices first implemented in the Northern California Region, aims to reduce morbidity and mortality among members with asthma by:

•	Providing clinicians with evidence-based asthma management guidelines and support tools that address medications, environmental triggers and communicating with diverse populations
•	Developing and maintaining strong patient/provider relationships so that members and clinicians can work together to create personalized asthma-management plans
•	Helping care teams monitor and track member health through automated reports and decision and delivery system support

"My physician helped me develop a care plan," said Carpenter. "Now I know which medications to take, when to take them, and what to avoid. Dr. Lau has even called me at home to check in and answer my questions."

"We understand that every one of our members with asthma is different," said Matthew Lau, MD, Carpenter's physician. "They live in different environments and respond differently to treatments. By using evidence-based guidelines and talking with members about their care histories, we're able to develop treatment plans to help them meet their personal therapy goals."

Dr. Lau noted that, through KP's clinical support systems, he's able to get feedback on his entire patient panel based on their medication usage and provide outreach to high-risk patients who may need extra support.

"The ability for physicians to monitor asthma outcomes and embed medication guidelines into daily practice will improve even more with the launch of KP HealthConnect," said Chase.

While Julie Carpenter may not know about the systems that support her physician's ability to provide her care, she does know that she is grateful for the level of care she has received at KP. "Kaiser really went above and beyond for me," she said. "I didn't just get a prescription, I got an education."