Use of a chronic disease management programme in COPD to reduce hospital admissions

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) accounts for a large number of hospital admissions and numerous interventions have attempted to reduce exacerbations requiring hospitalization. This paper describes the implementation of a community based COPD management programme led by a respiratory physiotherapist to improve home management of COPD and its effect on reducing readmissions and/or length of stay in hospital. One-hundred and twenty-five patients (median age73) referred with COPD exacerbations met the criteria for the service; 95 received the intervention and data were available for 80. Median FEV1 was 0.86 L. Admission data, length of stay and total hospitalization days with COPD were compared for one year before and after the intervention. Overall there was no reduction in length of stay, admission frequency, or adjusted total hospitalization days with COPD, but median time interval to next exacerbation increased by 29%. In those who had had previous admissions (mean FEV1 0.58 L) total hospitalization days fell by 27%, length of stay fell by 58% despite an increase in admission frequency from one to two per year, and there was no change in median time interval to next hospitalized exacerbation. In our patients implementation of a Chronic Disease Management programme increased the time to next hospitalized exacerbation. Benefit was seen in the more severe patients however, with a significant reduction in both length of stay and total hospitalization days.