Study: Vent therapy cuts readmission rates for COPD patients
By HME News Staff
Updated Thu July 16, 2015
ANDOVER, Mass. - Readmission rates for COPD patients who were hospitalized two or more times within a year and who were transitioned to a patient management program that included treatment with non-invasive positive pressure ventilation were reduced 97% during the subsequent 12 months, according to new research published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. The proportion of COPD patients included in the study who were readmitted on two or more occasions decreased from 100% (397 of 397) in the year prior to initiation of intervention to 2.2% (9 of 397) in the following year. The study, authored by Steven Coughlin, PhD, Wei Liang, PhD, and Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, examined 397 patients who had all been hospitalized at least twice in a single year with an acute COPD exacerbation. Each patient was prescribed a Trilogy ventilator manufactured by Philips Respironics for home use. Continued in home care consisted of medication management, oxygen therapy, patient education and ongoing respiratory therapist care in the home. “This study holds promise in how a multi-faceted intervention could assist health systems in significantly improving the care of the patients with advanced stage COPD in their home,” said Parthasarathy, professor of medicine and director of the Center for Sleep Disorders at Banner University Medical Center in Tucson.
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