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Research Helping Respiratory Patients

October 11, 2016

saramason2-with-riverstonesAn intervention programme initiated by clinical nurse specialist and EIT Master of Nursing student Sara Mason is significantly boosting health outcomes for the many people in Hawke’s Bay diagnosed with respiratory disease.

Working for the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s Pulmonary Long Term Management Service, Sara believes the model could also be used to better manage other health conditions and she sees potential for rolling it out elsewhere in New Zealand.

New Zealand has the second highest incidence of hospitalisations for respiratory disease in the OECD and Hawke’s Bay’s population is particularly vulnerable. The region has a high percentage of Māori, and Māori and Pasifika are five times more likely to die from chronic respiratory disease than non-Māori.

“The biggest indicator for developing respiratory disease is the environment you’re born into,” Sara explains. “Contributing factors can be smoking, chemicals such as agrichemical sprays and the disadvantages experienced by those who are in a lower socio-economic group.”

Coping with the health board’s increased volume of patients called for a different approach – directing services more efficiently to reduce the risk of hospitalisation, better supporting patient
rehabilitation, empowering patients by providing more tailored information and acknowledging the low engagement of Māori in existing health services. The new multi-disciplinary service operates in Napier, Hastings, Flaxmere, Havelock North, Waipukurau and Wairoa in venues such as local gyms, community centres, patient homes and aged care facilities. It also links up with whānau, health providers and community services that individual patients feel are important in their lives.

Sara launched a six-month pilot two years ago to track the outcomes of interventions for two categories of patients. The pilot, which forms the basis of her master’s thesis, recorded an impressive 63 percent decrease in hospitalisation rates and a significant improvement in patients’ ability to complete a six-minute walk test. “The idea,” she explains, “was to create a model
tiered system so we could focus our energies in areas where patients were most at risk while still supporting others so they didn’t end up in the high risk category.”

The new model which is operating now, builds on the pilot’s findings.

“They target high risk patients in other countries,” Sara says of health interventions overseas, “the problem I saw here was that we weren’t picking apart different interventions to see what is making the difference.”