Recognized by recurring episodes of cough, wheezing, and breathlessness, asthma affects an estimated 300 million people worldwide and results in lost work and school time, 1.8 million emergency room visits annually, 500,000 hospitalizations and 5000 deaths per year.

-Team@CMHF

• In the United States there are 20 million asthmatics of which 6 million are children
• Emergency treatment is more expensive than planned management, and the non-medical economic costs create financial strain on families.
• The burden of asthma can be reduced through efforts by individuals, health care providers, health care organizations, and local and national governments to improve asthma control.
• Disease Management Programs emphasize prevention of disease-related episodes and complications using evidence-based guidelines and patient empowerment tools.
• The goal is to reduce the episodes of asthma, prevent emergency room visits (and hospital admissions) and improve overall quality of life for the patient and family. This pro-active management improves the health status of affected individuals over the entire course of the disease, while at the same time reducing healthcare costs.
• Staten Island Physician Practice (SIPP) has developed an Asthma Disease Management Program utilizing these concepts.
• The team approach focuses on individual patient’s goals and quality of life.
• The team, comprised of a pulmonologist, respiratory therapist, pharmacist, registered nurse, social worker, care navigator and a smoking cessation program, takes care of you, not just your asthma.
• A person affected with asthma can have a visit with any one of the team members in the same visit, and SIPP also has an Urgent Care Center open 7 days a week that can manage almost all emergencies associated with asthma.

For further reading log on to
http://www.sichamber.com/post/684186-asthma-disease-management