Marketing &
Communications
contact information
Main office:
(203) 688-2488
Call for after hours
beeper no.
Fax:
(203) 688-2491
Patient conditions
after hours:
(203) 688-4177
Media Coordinator:
Mark D'Antonio
(203) 688-2493
Director:
Bill Gombeski
(203) 688-2488
Assistant Director:
Katie Murphy
(203) 688-2492
Phone Numbers
Directory assistance
(203) 688-4242
Patient information
(203) 688-4177
Adult emergency
(203) 688-2222
Children's emergency
(203) 688-3333
Admitting
(203) 688-2221
Children's admitting
(203) 688-3331
Psychiatric admitting
(203) 688-9907
Mailing address:
Yale-New Haven Hospital
20 York Street
New Haven, CT
06510-3202
Released January 8, 1998
Yale-New Haven Hospital news release
Asthma Emergencies and Admissions are
Reduced with Innovative Program
For more information, call 203-688-2488 or E-mail Ken Best
Emergency room visits for adult asthma patients were reduced 64 percent and hospital admissions related to asthma fell 63 percent, saving more than $180,000 in hospital costs through an innovative program at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The effort recently earned top honors in the annual National Hospital Pharmacy Quality Awards.
Pharmacist Laura Engles-Horton and Dr. Karen Brown led a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals who targeted 48 high-risk adult asthma patients in the YNHH Primary Care Center. More than $10,000 worth of provider time, educational materials and asthma care products such as inhalers and peak flow meters were contributed. Individualized patient education programs were provided by pharmacists or nurses. Physicians were notified about high-risk patients and given improved forms for documenting asthma education and patient home management plans in medical charts.
"Our independent panel of judges were impressed by all of this year's submissions, and were particularly interested in the ingenuity of the pharmacy department at Yale-New Haven Hospital for their efforts in improving asthma care," said Bill Dempsey, vice president and general manager, hospital products business sector at Abbott Laboratories, which sponsors the awards program.
"Patients responded positively to our program," said Engles-Horton. "The most challenging aspect was educating patients that asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease and helping them understand they can lead normal and healthy lives if they use medications properly."
The success of the adult asthma program has led to the development of a similar pediatric asthma program, she added.
Yale-New Haven received a $10,000 institutional grant as part of the first place recognition, which took place recently at a meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in Atlanta.