AUSTIN, TX - (June 17, 2009) - The Seton Asthma Center is one of five outstanding programs nationwide to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management. Chosen for its exemplary efforts to deliver high-quality asthma care, Seton's program is also the first in Texas to be recognized by the EPA.
"We provide home-based care planning and care coordination designed to wrap services around the patient," said Steve Conti, MBA, RRT, AE-C, Director of Disease Management and the Seton Asthma Program. "Seton's program offers individualized education and care coordination tailored to patient's specific needs. It is designed to meet the patient at his or her point of need whether that's in the patient's home, the clinic, or at school through our mobile clinic programs. All of these services are provided free of charge to the patient."
The National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management recognizes outstanding comprehensive asthma management programs for innovative approaches that improve patient health and quality of life. The winners of the 2009 award demonstrate that comprehensive asthma care with a strong environmental component can dramatically improve health outcomes for people with asthma.
"Asthma is a public health issue, an economic issue and an environmental issue that touches entire communities," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "The Seton Asthma Center is leading the way toward real solutions and is giving hope to millions of Americans, many of them children, who battle asthma. We have a long way to go, but with the innovation and hard work of The Seton Asthma Center, we are making progress."
According to the 2006 National Health Interview Survey (by the National Center for Health Statistics and Centers for Disease Control), 23 million people in the United States, including 6.8 million children, have asthma Here in Travis County, 15.3 percent of the population suffers from the disease or conditions related to it. Annually, 8,000 emergency room visits are attributed to asthma.
Asthma is one of the leading causes of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and school absenteeism for children. Annual expenditures for health and lost productivity due to the disease are estimated at nearly $20 billion, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Although there is no known cure, there are ways to manage asthma to reduce the number of attacks and improve patient quality of life through effective and comprehensive medical and environmental care.
Since 2004, the Seton Asthma Center has seen nearly 1,800 children and 200 adults The center primarily serves the working poor and medically indigent; 85 percent of its patients are uninsured or publicly funded. While the vast majority of these patients (69.3 percent) come from Travis County - specifically East Austin, which statistically has the highest population of uninsured persons in the city - the program also serves a significant need in economically disadvantaged rural communities in Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays and Williamson counties.
"The Seton Asthma Center is being recognized for its outstanding efforts to reduce the burden of asthma for families in their communities," said Elizabeth Cotsworth, Director of the EPA's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air. "This program is achieving positive environmental and health outcomes and the EPA applauds their innovation and commitment to control asthma."
The EPA presented the award to The Seton Asthma Center at the Communities in Action for Asthma-Friendly Environments National Asthma Forum in Washington, DC, on June 4.
For more information about the EPA's National
Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management, visit
www.epa.gov/asthma.