Research Initiatives

The Asthma Network of West Michigan represents a cooperative relationship between area health care providers, institutions, non-profit organizations and the community.  A comprehensive package of services has been developed to address the needs as identified by these pro-active professionals.  Although there is a small staff, accomplishments must be largely credited to the professional volunteer force that is the heart of the network.

Divided into six standing committees:  Advocacy, Education, Fund Development, Finance, Marketing & Membership and Research * specific tasks can be clearly defined and accomplished.  Each committee is an integral part of the whole; attacking the asthma issue from a differing perspective * resulting in a total that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Detailed Outcome Measures:

In 1997, we demonstrated that our educational program for low-income children with moderate to severe asthma led to significant improvements in knowledge about asthma, behaviors and clinical outcomes.

In 2000, we demonstrated that total hospital charges decreased by $55,265 from the pre-study year to the study year, for an average charge reduction of $1,625 per subject for the 34 children enrolled in our case management program.  We further demonstrated that the mean Emergency Department charge/encounter and mean charge/all encounters were decreased significantly as well.

In 2001, comparing 45 children we served to 39 children in a control sample (who had never received our interventions), we demonstrated that our asthma case management program significantly improved the clinical outcomes of low-income children with asthma severe enough to warrant an Emergency Department visit or hospitalization.  The differences between the cohort group and the matched control group were highly significant.

In 2003, we demonstrated that our relationship with a managed care organization (MCO), a first between an MCO and an asthma coalition in this country, significantly improved the clinical outcomes of members with asthma.

In 2003, in a different study, we demonstrated that positive outcomes -- as measured by hospitalizations and days hospitalized --resulted from this collaboration between an asthma coalition and an MCO.

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In 2005, reviewing the charts of 37 managed care (Commercial and Medicaid) patients who have been enrolled in the Asthma Network of West Michigan for one year and were served between 2003 and 2005 we demonstrated a 66% decrease in hospital admissions, 46% decrease in length of stay and 60% decrease in Emergency Department visits.

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