Helping Adults Breathe and Thrive: A Healthy Homes Approach to Improving Respiratory Health of Adults with Asthma

As a health organization that serves communities disproportionately affected by asthma, Sinai Health System adopted an innovative community health worker (CHW) home-based intervention model to deliver coordinated, cost-effective and patient-centered education to help adults with asthma breathe and thrive. CHWs conduct five home visits per year to assess a patient's environment and support the patient's individualized asthma improvement plans.

The program's goals are to reduce symptom frequency and urgent health resource utilization, while improving quality of life. In one year, the program reduced asthma-related emergency department visits by 66 percent, hospitalizations by 57 percent and participants' daytime asthma symptoms by 67 percent.

This case study is part of the Illinois Health and Hospital Association's annual Quality Excellence Achievement Awards. Each year, IHA recognizes and celebrates the achievements of Illinois hospitals and health systems in continually improving and transforming health care in the state. These organizations are improving health by striving to achieve the Triple Aim—improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction), improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care—and the Institute of Medicine's six aims for improvement—safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. To learn more, visit https://www.ihaqualityawards.org/javascript-ui/IHAQualityAward/