– El Camino Health is now offering personalized virtual health assistant to patients suffering from COPD via Conversa Health partnership designed to improve respiratory care coordination and patient experience.
– Innovative 2 BREATHE (Be Resilient EAch Time after a Hospital Event) chat program leverages Conversa’s patient engagement platform assigns patients with a respiratory therapist and a pulmonary nurse practitioner for personalized treatment to help patients breathe easier.
Following a successful pilot, El Camino Health’s nationally renowned pulmonary health department is now offering Conversa Health’s personalized virtual health assistant technology to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) as 2 BREATHE Chat program. 2 BREATHE chat program enables patients with COPD, asthma and other respiratory illnesses to be monitored remotely by their care team.
2 BREATHE Chat Initial Pilot Results
COPD and asthma alone affect more than 50 million Americans, and the mortality rate for COPD patients has risen in the last 35 years. El Camino Health’s care team saw immediate and significant improvement in patient outcomes during the initial pilot. COPD Assessment (CAT) scores trended down after the introduction of 2 BREATHE Chat, which regularly “checks in” with patients to collect meaningful health data in real-time.
Additionally, the team reported a high rate of sustained patient engagement (85% regularly used Conversa’s platform). Patients averaged 15 chats during a 90-day program (above average for episodic care engagement rates), with 94% of patients said they were satisfied with the virtual health experience. Patient readmission was significantly reduced and even then, readmissions involved catching issues much earlier than usual, therefore improving overall patient outcomes.
“We looked to Conversa’s high-touch care platform to help us reduce 30-day readmissions and shorten the length of hospital stays for patients suffering from COPD,” said Cheryl Reinking, chief nursing officer of El Camino Health’s hospitals. “The results were so impressive that we decided to move from pilot to a full rollout of offering 2 BREATHE Chat to inpatients and outpatients.”
How The 2 BREATHE Chat Program Works
Patients enrolled in the 2 BREATHE Chat program receive notifications for their chats via email or SMS text message — whichever you prefer. Patients simply click the link in the notification and their secure, personalized chat will begin immediately. Every patient’s 2 BREATHE Chat experience is personalized based on their specific unique health conditions and concerns that ensure they receive chats that are relevant and meaningful.
In addition, the patient’s 2 BREATHE care team:
– Provides education about their condition
– Reviews all treatments with the patient, such as medicines, oxygen therapy, mucus clearance techniques and infection prevention strategies.
– Provides smoking-cessation counseling, if needed.
– Coordinates follow-up appointments with their doctor.
– Suggests other services and resources that can help, such as the Better Breather’s Club & Support Group, a dietitian or a medical social worker.
– Follows up with regularly using 2 BREATHE Chat to monitor your condition. With 2 BREATHE chat, patients will receive personalized, automated check-in messages on your phone or computer.
Pulmonary Health Program at El Camino Health Background
The Pulmonary Health Program at El Camino Health offers advanced diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, including airway recanalization, bronchoscopic lung volume reduction, clinical trials, confocal endomicroscopy, electromagnetic navigation guided (EMN) bronchoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), transbronchial cryobiopsy, and robotic-assisted bronchoscopy.
Focusing specifically on COPD, the organization recently launched a Chronic Respiratory Disease Program. This Medicare-covered chronic care management service partners with patients to develop a personalized, comprehensive care plan to identify health concerns and goals, track medications, coordinate with healthcare providers and connection to support resources, and provide education and 24/7 access for urgent needs.
