COPD Clinics may Reduce ER Visits

According to a new study, a clinic specifically designed to educate, manage, and treat people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease results in fewer emergency room visits. The University of Texas Medical Branch has two COPD-specific clinics, and researchers compared data from patients with COPD managed at COPD-specific clinics to patients with COPD managed by primary care clinicians. UTMB researchers examined four years of data and discovered that patients who went to a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-specific clinic had fewer emergency room visits and hospital stays than patients with COPD who went to a primary care clinic, according to Dr. Alex Duarte, one of the study’s authors.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung illness that might involve emphysema or chronic bronchitis. Outpatient clinics are used to treat this sort of sickness.

“We looked at how often patients were seen in clinic as well as their medications prescribed and disease severity, their age and smoking status,” Duarte said. “And for the next four years, we looked to see for an individual patient if they were they admitted to the emergency room and if they were hospitalized. What we found is that the patients that we’re seen in our specialty clinic had fewer emergency room visits over the span of those four years compared to primary care clinics. There were also fewer hospitalizations.”

The COPD clinics, one in Galveston and one in League City, follow assessment and treatment recommendations. They emphasize patient education and teach patients how to utilize inhalers and control their condition. These patients were given an action plan that included a phone number to call in order to report symptoms and maybe obtain medicines.

According to the researchers, patients in COPD clinics received more care, including diagnostic, preventative, and screening procedures. These Joint Commission-accredited clinics offer a standardized evaluation and management approach for COPD patients.

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