Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114788

Gary Harmon, MPH¹, Robert Federici, MSPH¹, Keith Ashby, MD², Emily Hoole, MPA³, Wendy Roy³, Danny Jackson, Pharm D⁴, Larry S. Webber, PhD¹, and John Lefante, PhD¹. (1) Department of Biostatistics, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70112-2715, 504-988-2891, gharmon@tulane.edu, (2) Tulane University and LSUHSC-HCSD, Huey P. Long Medical Center, 352Hospital Blvd., Pineville, LA 71361, (3) The Rapides Foundation, 1101 Fourth Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, LA 71301, (4) LSUHSC-HCSD, Huey P. Long Medical Center, 352 Hospital Blvd., Pineville, LA 71361

Based in rural central Louisiana, the Cenla Medication Access Program (CMAP) began in 2001 and provides chronic care prescription medications and medication education for people who cannot afford them. CMAP participants are being tracked longitudinally to look for changes in health outcomes associated with enrolling in the program. Two major outcomes are emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions. Complete data are available on 5499 individuals, with an average age of 49.8 years. The sample includes 2539 (46.2%) African-Americans and 4938 (71.6%) women. Data are being collected through hospital records on the number of ED visits, and hospital admissions. There are two main outcomes analyzed: 1. The change in the number of ED visits from the 6-month period before enrollment into the program to the 6-month period after enrollment; 2. The change in the number of hospital admissions from the 6-month period before enrollment into the program to the 6-month period after enrollment. For each outcome, Poisson regression models were used to look for significant change over time, adjusting for age, race, compliance and gender. There was a statistically significant (p<.001) reduction of 2352 (33.6%) ED visits and a statistically significant (p<.001) reduction of 366 (72.2%) hospital admissions from pre-program enrollment to post-program enrollment. Significant gender differences were observed for hospital admissions, while race and increasing age were significant predictors of ED visits. Estimated dollar savings due to the decrease in ED visits is approximately $1.8 million dollars and estimated savings due to decreased hospital admissions is $1.9 million dollars.

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