Primary care provider perceptions of an asthma home visiting program

Abstract

Introduction

Pediatric asthma home visiting programs have improved clinical outcomes, but little is known about how providers perceive these programs. The purpose of this study was to understand how primary care providers and their colleagues in a medical home perceive an asthma home visiting program that is available at no cost to their patients.

Methods

After several years of running an asthma home visiting program using community health workers (CHW) in 10 pediatric primary care offices in the South Coast of Massachusetts, we surveyed the providers of patients who had enrolled in the program. An anonymous online survey was developed by the program leaders, the program analytics team, and the CHWs for quality improvement purposes. Survey domains included the perceived utility of various aspects of the program, impact on patients, and interaction with CHWs, as well as demographic information about the providers.

Results

Of the 24 providers asked to complete the survey from eight primary care practices, 21 completed the survey (88%). Respondents perceived that the most beneficial aspects were environmental assessment (95%), asthma education (91%), and addressing environmental issues (86%). In addition to numerous positive free-text responses, suggestions for improvement were in the areas of referral completion, post-visit communication, and patient identification in the medical record. All respondents would continue to refer to the program.

Conclusions

Primary care providers and medical home staff perceived an asthma home visiting program to have high utility, particularly the environmental assessment, asthma education, and mitigation of environmental issues. Additional opportunities for improvement were identified.

Keywords:

• Pediatrics
• community health worker
• adherence
• survey
• environmental assessment
• asthma education

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a MCHB H17MC21564 Healthy Tomorrows grant and a MCHB T71MC00009 LEAH training grant. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government (see HRSA.gov).