Wildfire smoke can have a host of health impacts, especially for those with ailments like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Staff at University of California Davis Health have developed a system to improve care for such patients and are calling on other health systems to follow their lead.
UC Davis Health calls its system the Wildfire Population Health Approach. Among its five pillars are identifying at-risk patients, putting together multidisciplinary care teams to better understand community needs and using publicly available data to determine wildfire risk. These “population health approaches” have been successfully used with diseases like cancer, chronic kidney disease and dementia, according to a new paper.
Dr. Reshma Gupta, a primary care physician at the UC Davis Medical Center and study co-author, said that when air quality drops enough, vulnerable UC Davis Health patients can get automatic messages about steps to take to protect themselves. A pilot program for COPD patients was launched about a year ago, and recently has expanded to other patients.
“This is something that they could get on their phone in real time… with a real reminder of what they need to do without needing a new, you know, office visit or a doctor's visit that they won't get for a few weeks,” she said.
For especially vulnerable patients, she said respiratory therapists would reach out directly to them during major smoke events. The paper she co-authored calls on health systems in smoke-impacted communities to take similar actions.
“To meet the needs of clinically at-risk and underserved patients who are affected by this increasing health threat, health systems must replace reactionary approaches with collaborative, innovative, and proactive approaches,” the paper reads. “With the Wildfire Population Health Approach outlined here, we provide a plan of action for health systems and care teams to adapt to their communities, circumstances, and needs.”
With smoke now regularly impacting every corner of the country, Gupta said “It's not something that any of us can really ignore at this point.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
