RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The effect of integrated care on asthma control
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP p4988
VO 38
IS Suppl 55
A1 Prinsen, Maarten
A1 Van Heijst, Ellen
A1 Schokker, Siegrid
A1 de Jong, Corina
A1 Riemersma, Roland
A1 Kocks, Jan Willem
A1 van der Molen, Thys
YR 2011
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4988.abstract
AB Background: Integrated care of respiratory patients has often been advocated, however, the effect on patient outcome is not clear.Objective: To describe the effect of an integrated care system on asthma control.Method: We developed an integrated care system for communication between pulmonologists and General Practitioners (GP). In this system patients with respiratory problems complete questionnaires (history, control and health status) and visit the laboratory for spirometry. These data are collected and uploaded to a central server. Based on these data without seeing the patient and supported by a decision support system the pulmonologists (n=9) give advice about diagnosis and treatment to the GP (n=250), who treats the patient.Results: From a total of 7877 patients referred to our integrated care system 3721 patients were diagnosed with asthma. In 889 of these patients ACQ data were available at baseline and follow up. The median ACQ scores at baseline (1.0) proved to be significantly different from the median ACQ scores of the follow up visit (0.7) (Z= -8.81, p <0.001). Improvement of asthma control ≥ MCID (0.4) was measured in 32% of patients (n=284). Additionally the results showed deteriorated asthma control in 15% of patients (n=134) and unchanging asthma control in 51% of patients (n=454).View this table:Table 1. Amount of patients per ACQ cut-off value per visitConclusions: This integrated care model improved asthma control.