A chronic inflammation of the airways, asthma results in nonspecific airway hyperactivity and episodic airway narrowing. The narrowing arises initially from airway smooth muscle contraction. If triggering events keep recurring, mucosal edema, airway epithelial damage and sloughing followed by basement membrane thickening can promote more severe disease and require hospitalization. The goal of Penn's program is to help asthma patients stay out of the hospital and emergency department by improving their self-management skills. This helps them maintain near normal to normal lung function.
Results are encouraging.
ER use fell off dramatically. For patients with acute asthma who need to be hospitalized, the length of stay at Penn is approximately two days as compared to four days in other area hospitals. I also teach patients that they must carry their medicine with them at all times in case of an emergency. Socio-economic barriers such as lack of child care, lack of transportation, inability to afford medications, and violence in the home can also interfere with or prevent many of our patients from receiving routine outpatient care. A number of special strategies have been developed to remove these barriers.