Life-Changing Statistics: How Data Helped Reduce Asthma Admissions and Costs for Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center
About the Customer
Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center (SMEMC) is a large metropolitan safety-net hospital serving as a critical healthcare provider for uninsured and underserved populations in a major urban center. With a mission to provide equitable, high-quality care, the hospital sought to reduce preventable emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations related to asthma while improving patient outcomes and reducing costs.
SMEMC noticed a troubling trend — 4,777 asthma-related ED visits over five years, primarily from uninsured patients, costing an average of $11,000 per visit and totaling $54 million in expenses. Despite a strong clinical asthma program, hospital leaders struggled to understand why so many patients were returning for emergency care.
The Challenge
A Reactive Treatment Plan: High rates of asthma-related ED visits and hospitalizations led to excessive costs and preventable health crises. The SMEMC team hoped to move from reactive treatment to proactive intervention by addressing the environmental factors contributing to asthma admissions.
Limited Visibility: The team wasn’t able to access data about non-clinical factors affecting patient health, such as housing conditions and air quality.
A Need for Reliable Data: SMEMC was looking for a data-driven, actionable approach to reduce asthma triggers and improve long-term health outcomes for the benefit of their community.
The Solution
By using Metopio Analytics and predictive modeling, SMEMC identified the following four-step approach to tackling asthma admissions:
Evaluate Criteria: The team analyzed five years of patient data, revealing a concentration of asthma-related ED visits among specific ZIP codes. Then, they integrated de-identified community health data to assess external risk factors.
Map the Results: The SMEMC team cross-referenced patient addresses with social determinants of health (SDOH), including housing quality, air quality, and lead exposure and identified a key driver: Building violations were highly correlated with high asthma admissions.
Find Opportunities for Action: Once they knew the root cause, SMEMC adjusted emergency room screening to include housing conditions and developed a pilot program offering in-home assessments for patients with frequent asthma-related ED visits. The team partnered with community organizations to remediate asthma triggers, such as mold, HVAC issues, pests, and smoke exposure.
Identify Impact: This team is proud to share that 0% of pilot patients returned to the ED for asthma-related emergencies — plus, there was an 80% reduction in outpatient asthma visits, indicating improved disease management. SMEMC also saw significant cost savings, with the average cost of screening and home remediation at $3,700 per patient, compared to an $11,000 ED visit — a $7,300 savings per patient. They also strengthened financial sustainability through "pay-for-success" contracts, supporting long-term investment in community-based interventions.
Metopio’s Impact
Improved Patient Outcomes: Patients in the intervention group saw long-term improvements in asthma management and overall health.
Reduced Healthcare Costs: A shift from emergency treatment to prevention saved millions of dollars in unnecessary ED visits.
Data-driven Decision-making: SMEMC hospital leaders now have an integrated, predictive model to guide future community health initiatives.
Development of a Scalable Model: The success of the pilot program is being expanded to other high-risk health conditions and social factors.
What SMEMC Says About Metopio
By leveraging Metopio’s analytics platform, SMEMC moved beyond treating symptoms to addressing root causes of asthma-related hospitalizations. The result? A healthier community, fewer unnecessary emergency visits, and significant cost savings — all powered by better data.
““Metopio’s tools helped us to uncover a cost driver in asthma ER visits and quickly deploy a predictive model, which improved patient outcomes and saved millions of dollars.””
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