Eastern Health aims to reduce hospital visits with new respiratory program

Some patients are applauding Eastern Health's new community-based respiratory program, which is intended to make managing and preventing lung diseases easier while minimizing trips to the hospital.

A new in-person respiratory education clinic has been established in Holyrood, along with a program that helps treat patients with lung diseases in their own homes.

The clinic is also able to do diagnostic testing to better educate people on their specific respiratory disease.

Walter Carroll ofLogy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove said the program has completely changed the way he manages his own lung disease.

This 66-year-old was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease14 years ago after his right lung collapsed while he was working offshore.

About a year and a half ago his left lung collapsed twice and then about six months ago his right lung collapsed again.

"I have a hard time mowing grass or shovelling," he said while testing out his new inhalers at the United Shores Health Centrein Holyrood.

"I [have] to use oxygen now for any activity."

With the new program, Carroll said, he gets regular phone calls from a respiratory therapist checking in on his health and offering help with home visits if required.

"If you [have] a problem they are easy to get a hold of instead of going to the hospital [for] nine or 10 hours," he said. "I think it is excellent."

Although Carroll said he takes full blame for not treating his lung disease more seriously 14 years ago, he believes if this program was around at the time of his diagnosis, he would have suffered less lung damage.

Back to the basics

With Newfoundland and Labrador having some of the highest COPD rates in the country, Dr. Gokul Vidyasankar, the medical director ofcommunity-based respiratory care,said they're going back to the basics to offer better service.

Withconventional treatment patients are able to access medication, like inhalers, through the acute-care system or a family doctor but if they have any complications at home they have to go to the emergency room to be treated.

"The problem we are missing here is we are not breaking that cycle," said Vidyasankar.

"We are trying to find out strategies to improve these patients' quality of lives and prevent these recurring emergency room visits."

There have been 100 people referred to the program so far with room to grow, according to Vidyasankar. Patients are being referred to the program through visits to the hospital or through primary-care providers.

"We are hoping this will be the primary preventative program for respiratory disease in the region and at some point maybe even the province," he said.

The new respiratory-care program is part of Eastern Health's larger plan to implement shared care in the community using collaborative team clinics, which is a team of primary health-care providers in a shared clinic.

"The shift towards community care is one that we were trying to make for a number of years, and I do believe that we are starting to shift the dial now," said Melissa Coish, Eastern Health's regional director of primary health care and chronic disease prevention and management.

Holyrood was chosen for the education clinicbecause the infrastructure and team were already in place, said Coish.The clinic is one of the first examples of a collaborative team clinic within Eastern Health, and Coish said this model of health care can be used on other chronic diseases in the province.

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