Effectiveness of community health worker intervention at Dayton children's hospital at decreasing emergency department visits and hospitalization rates for pediatric asthma patients

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether asthma interventions completed by the community health workers (CHWs) at Dayton Children's Hospital decrease the rate of Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. 

METHODS: The data was chosen from the CHW patient population that met the inclusion criteria of at least 1 hospitalization/ED visit or Primary Care Provider referral in the twelve months prior to intervention during 2019 to 2020. The visit rates from 12 months before and after intervention were analyzed with Markov Chain Monte Carlo where the likelihood was assumed to be Poisson. 

RESULTS: The number of ED visits decreased by 2 to 4 visits (P < 1e-5) per year per patient on average. This was an 83% decrease in the number of ED visits a year for the total patient population. Hospitalization rates also saw a decrease of 0.1 to 1.5 admissions (P = .006) per year per patient. This showed an overall 77% reduction in hospitalizations for the total patient population.