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COPD Home Management Program Reduces Hospital Admissions

A home-based management program for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has the potential to significantly reduce hospitalizations and improve the quality of life for patients, researchers say. They evaluated a multifaceted, ongoing home-based COPD management program on 9,091 patients from June 2019 to May 2021, with the hospital admission rate as the primary outcome. 

All study participants had COPD with a history of hospitalizations – for respiratory failure – and were on noninvasive ventilatory therapy. The home-based management program used COPD software administered by a respiratory therapist via in-home or telemedicine visits. In addition, patients received monthly visits and follow-up calls following their risk profile and care plan. 

The patients received more than 278,000 assessments, yielding more than 10 million data points.

During the study period, patient self-reported hospital admissions were measured at 12 months and compared with admission history for the prior 12 months. Researchers found that patients in the program experienced 60% fewer admissions over the previous history.

Researchers concluded that this type of home-based, software-driven COPD management program led by respiratory therapists who can significantly affect COPD admissions and quality of care. 

“This demonstrates the opportunity for greater collaboration between physicians, discharge programs, and home medical equipment providers to improve COPD management significantly,” researchers noted.

Additional insight from Dr. Nair: People on non-invasive ventilation at home are often in the further stages of COPD, so they are pretty sick at baseline. It is good to know the more intensive outpatient support is beneficial to them. Maintaining ongoing care and  coordination of these services can be very difficult though, as it is very labor intensive. 

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