This is a participatory action research
combined with the implementation of Gibson
empowerment process. The objectives are 1) to create
asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
[COPD] networks in primary care units 2) to develop
guidelines for accessing services in the clinic using the
empowerment process 3) to compare the results before and
after implementing the guidelines. The studied group
consisted of 120 healthcare network members and 100
patients with asthma and COPD.Research showed that the
network consisted of health workers, community leaders,
village health volunteers, and patients with asthma and
COPD. The guideline is that the network plays the role in
locating patients, providing knowledge about diseases and
treatments, monitoring medication/appointments, public
relations for clinic, accompanying patients in
examinations, and creating a linked patient database by
integrating with other chronic diseases care in the
area.There are 4 aspects regarding the development of
hospital guidelines 1) Public relations 2) Service system 3)
Participation in associate network 4) Personnel /
equipment / locations. Subsequent to the research, it
appeared that the number of patients treated at the clinic
increased by 49.14% and clinic appointments increased
45.93%.When comparing with Paired t-test statistics, it
was found that the average number of ER-Visit patients
and missed appointments were decreased; Patients had
better lung capacity and more accurate medication usage;
and the hospital incurred significantly less expenses for
emergency room treatments which is statically reduced
at.05.
This shows that building and strengthening the
primary care unit network promote cooperation within
community and asthma and COPD patients so a practical
and sustainable guideline can be formulated with positive
outcome by integrating the work with other chronic
disease care in the area. This research can also be a model
for solving the problem of patients missing their
appointments or not attending clinics for other diseases
both inside and outside the hospital.
Keywords : Aaccessibility, Empowerment, Network.
