February 4, 2020 – Following a successful pilot, El Camino Health’s nationally renowned pulmonary health department is offering Conversa Health’s personalized virtual health assistant technology to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) as 2 BREATHE Chat. 2 BREATHE enables patients with COPD, asthma and other respiratory illnesses to be monitored remotely by their care team.
“COPD and asthma alone affect more than 50 million Americans, and the mortality rate for COPD patients has risen in the last 35 years -- this is a key area that needs a new approach,” said Murray Bronzinsky, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Conversa. “Conversa’s personalized, automated conversation experiences are transforming the traditional approach for patient communication, population health management and care delivery. El Camino is a forward thinking partner who has benefited from our solution, and we are excited to scale with them based on our shared success.”
El Camino Health’s care team saw immediate and significant improvement in patient outcomes during the 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.”
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.
