Severe asthma: emergency care patient driven solutions

Area of Science:

• Respiratory Medicine
• Health Services Research
• Systems Thinking

Background:

• Patients with severe asthma often avoid emergency departments (EDs) during exacerbations.
• Self-medication in severe asthma exacerbations poses significant risks.
• This reluctance to seek emergency care reflects a broader national issue.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the underlying reasons for severe asthma patients' reluctance to attend the ED.
• To develop practical, patient-centered solutions to address this reluctance.
• To explore the application of systems thinking in understanding and solving healthcare access issues.

Main Methods:

• Soft systems methodology was employed to analyze the problem of ED avoidance.
• A co-production approach with patients was used to develop a potential solution.
• The study focused on a well-defined ('tame') problem within healthcare access.

Main Results:

• Patients expressed fear and vulnerability associated with attending the ED.
• An Asthma Patient Passport (APP) was designed to enhance patient confidence and communication during distress.
• The APP simplifies care-seeking by reducing patient steps from 12 to 5.

Conclusions:

• The Asthma Patient Passport (APP) offers a practical solution to improve emergency care access for severe asthma patients.
• The APP empowers patients by facilitating communication of needs during severe exacerbations.
• Systems thinking proved valuable in identifying patient-centered solutions for a defined healthcare access problem.