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WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health announced Thursday a first-of-its-kind environmental health impact initiative to help people most vulnerable to extreme weather events that can worsen existing chronic conditions.
The initiative is focusing first on extreme heat events to provide timely excessive heat alerts and tailored outreach to at-risk patients, and will expand in the fall to patients susceptible to reduced lung function, asthma and cardiac problems resulting from exposure to high levels of air pollution. Excessive weather events are becoming more common and severe, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Fifth National Climate Assessment1.
"Extreme heat kills more Americans each year than all other weather events combined. In addition to fatalities driven by heat strokes, extreme heat can worsen chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," said Dr. Dan Knecht, a practicing physician and vice president and chief clinical innovation officer for CVS Caremark®, a division of CVS Health. "Most heat-related deaths are preventable with outreach and intervention. We are proud to introduce a new capability that advances our efforts to find innovative ways to deliver personalized health care to consumers."
Initially available to members of Aetna, a CVS Health company, with the goal to expand to MinuteClinic® and CVS Pharmacy® locations, the initiative pairs advanced environmental data analytics that provide real-time and highly localized forecasting on air quality, wildfires, weather and other environmental factors with a patient's medical and pharmacy data.
The proactive approach enables Aetna care managers to contact vulnerable patients with personalized recommendations up to seven days in advance of an extreme weather event. Interventions include directing patients to CVS Health's range of resources, including Oak Street Health clinics available as cooling centers, health services provided by the company's MinuteClinic locations, medication management at CVS Pharmacy and more. Care managers use several resources when making clinical recommendations to at-risk patients, including CDC clinical guidance documents.
During the first two weeks of the initiative, care managers have connected with hundreds of at-risk patients across more than 20 states, including directing some to cooling centers and checking in with vulnerable patients post-hospital care to provide guidance to minimize heat exhaustion. In addition to improved health, anticipated outcomes include reduced medical expenditures and minimized in-patient stays and emergency department visits.
