Improving asthma management: one health plan's experience

To demonstrate that including the patient's perspective of disease control (patient-reported symptoms) in asthma treatment and management decisions improves patient outcomes and reduces healthcare resource utilization.

Two study phases gathered patients' assessments of disease control. Phase 1 used a retrospective physician questionnaire. Phase 2 used a patient questionnaire at each office visit. Physicians and patients were members of the Independent Health Association, a health insurer in upstate New York.

Phase 1 gathered patients' assessment of asthma control retrospectively using a physician questionnaire. Physicians received a list of pediatric patients in their practice who had intermittent and persistent asthma as their primary diagnosis. They reviewed a sample of these actively managed patients and answered 10 questions about them. Phase 2 was designed to include the patient's perspective. The Asthma Control Test was sent to every patient with asthma to complete and to bring to each physician visit.

In phase 1, emergency department visits and hospitalizations for asthma decreased during the program. Emergency department visits decreased from 3.71 to 2.92 per year (P < .01), and hospitalizations decreased from 0.83 to 0.81 per year (not statistically significant). Results for phase 2 are not yet available.

Although not a controlled program, for the participating practices the Independent Health Association health plan seems to have improved patient outcomes when they included retrospective, documented, patient-reported symptoms in their asthma management decisions. Emergency department visits and hospitalizations decreased. Managed care organizations should consider adding the patient's perspective of disease control to their asthma management decisions.