Lessons from Baltimore GHHI - Impact on Asthma Control

With asthma cases skyrocketing nationally and thousands of school and work days missed each year due to asthma-related causes, successful asthma management has emerged as one of today's major public health challenges. While ongoing proper administration of asthma medication is a critical piece, initial results from Baltimore's Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), a new home intervention program model, suggest that this approach may prove to be a cost-effective, long-term answer. Full Green and Healthy Homes Interventions were performed in the homes of 140 asthma-diagnosed children, each of whom historically racked up $20,000 to $40,000 in medical costs each year due to emergency room and urgent care visits. Post-intervention, including a home visit by an asthma specialist to explain the Interventions and how to regularly maintain the home to optimize health and safety, these costly medical expenses were essentially eliminated. Only one child reported a single visit to the ER, and this was due to an illness contracted at school (not a home-induced environmental response.) Better yet, not only does GHHI create savings by preventing ongoing asthma-related medical costs but it simultaneously addresses numerous other health and safety issues such as lead poisoning prevention, injury prevention, weatherization and energy efficiency. Reduced energy costs shift dollars from the family budget away from utility payments towards necessities like food and medicine. Through the use of a new platform to create a single intake and intervention system, GHHI speeds assistance to families, boosts government efficiency and builds real cross-sector, public-private service delivery partnerships. GHHI is changing public policy by building the case for leverage and efficiency, and revolutionizing the way both government and philanthropy invest in programs. GHHI is now active in 15 pilot sites across the nation and is the only initiative collaboratively supported by the White House, HUD, DOE, and CDC.