Abstract
Background:
One in five COPD patients will require rehospitalization within 30 days. COPD is a common disease with significant morbidity and incurs heavy utilization of healthcare resources. In the United States, COPD is part of Medicare’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which penalizes hospitals for readmissions within 30-days. Does inpatient COPD education by respiratory therapists (RT) decrease readmission rates? We hypothesized that inpatient RT driven COPD education has a significant effect on COPD specific readmission rates.
Methods:
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Wentworth Douglass Hospital. Data was collected from April 1, 2018 to April 1, 2019. Patients with an admitting diagnosis of COPD were offered education within 24 hours of admission. These COPD patients were assigned a number and a retrospective chart review was performed to determine readmission dates. All RTs were in-serviced and used the same method while performing the patient education. Patient comprehension was determined using the teach back method. Nominal data was analyzed in SPSS v24 with Crosstabs and the Chi-Square Fishers Exact test.
Results:
227 patients were enrolled in the study, 1 was excluded due to discharge prior to education. There was a small statistically insignificant improvement in the 30-day readmission rate in the educated group when compared to the group not receiving COPD education, (P = .696). There was no statistically significant association between education and no education for COPD 30-day readmissions as assessed by Fishers exact test, P = .696.
Conclusions:
Inpatient COPD education by respiratory therapists had no effect on the number of 30-day readmissions for the large cohort of 227 COPD patients. More research is needed to confirm this study finding. Sponsored Research: None. Conflict of Interest: None.
30-Day Readmissions
30-Day Readmissions
No
Yes
Total
Received Education n (%)
95 (88.0%)
13 (12.0%)
108 (100%)
Refused Education n (%)
101 (85.6%)
17 (14.4%)
118 (100%)
Total n (%)
196 (86.7%)
30 (13.3%)
226 (100%)
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