Project BREATHE NY

Project BREATHE NY is an innovative quality improvement (QI) program which aims to improve quality of life and health outcomes for children with asthma and their families by expanding the delivery of quality, guidelines- based asthma care across health systems in New York State.  Project BREATHE NY provides a comprehensive framework to engage health systems (in-patient, emergency department, and primary care) and community-based partners in integrating sustainable, evidence-based strategies and best practice tools across settings to educate patients and providers, drive QI in asthma care, build clinical-community linkages, and address health equity and social determinants of health.  Project BREATHE NY, a joint initiative of the American Lung Association (Lung Association) and the New York State Department of Health Asthma Control Program was funded and developed with support from the New York State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Environmental Health’s Cooperative Agreement “A Comprehensive Public Health Approach to Asthma Control Through Evidence-Based Interventions” (CDC-RFA-EH19-1902).

Project BREATHE NY received the Lung Association’s 2020 ALA Innovation Award, which recognizes Lung Association’s staff members who exemplify the nationwide commitment to innovation in the advancement of the association’s mission to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease.

Project BREATHE NY Goals

Project BREATHE NY aims to improve health outcomes and quality of life for children with asthma and their families and reduce asthma related emergency visits and hospitalizations among children. 

Through practice transformation and quality improvement, Project BREATHE NY enables health systems and community-based partners to collaboratively: 

1. Apply Project BREATHE’s customizable framework to achieve a structured, sustainable, systems-level approach to driving clinical quality improvement  
2. Deliver provider education to expand the multi-disciplinary asthma care team’s capacity to embed NAEPP Guidelines as the standard of care delivered to all patients with asthma 
3. Integrate comprehensive, individually tailored asthma self-management education and follow-up support to patients, coordinated across settings
4. Ensure care linkages and integration of referrals to community-based services that address social determinants of health

Benefits of Project BREATHE NY to Participating Healthcare Sites

• Improved health care outcomes among asthma patients
• Technical assistance by ALA staff for 12-18 months
• Evidence-based training tailored to clinical providers and health care staff on asthma guidelines and quality improvement
• Clinical toolkits for providers to guide asthma diagnosis and management
• Materials for teaching asthma self-management education to patients and families 
• Valved holding chambers/spacers, allergy proof pillow and bed covers, and educational materials for patients and families 

Project BREATHE NY Successes

During the contract period 2018-2021, Project BREATHE NY was embedded into 15 health systems sites throughout NYS resulting in: 

• Over 3,200 healthcare professionals receiving education and guidelines training.  
• Over 3,100 children with asthma served across multiple settings. 
• Over 975 families benefitting from enhanced clinical linkages to home-based asthma services delivered by community health workers and homecare nursing partners. 
• Additional benefits to participating sites: hospital achieved Magnet Designation, expanding the number of nurses achieving the National Asthma Educator Certification Board (NAECB) Certified Asthma Educator credential and dedicated nursing or respiratory staff to coordinate Project BREATHE efforts on-site.