Chest
Clinical Investigations: COPDReducing Length of Stay for Patients Hospitalized With Exacerbation of COPD by Using a Practice Guideline
Section snippets
Methods
The study was a retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized with exacerbation of COPD. Patients were classified at low risk for development of complications according to the guideline. We investigated the potential effects of the guideline in recommending a 3-day length of hospital stay and on quality of care. We then went on to determine if the practice guideline studied would have an impact on shortening length of stay while maintaining or improving quality of care.
Description of the Institution
The study was performed
Retrospective Analysis
Demographics: A total of 250 patients were included in the study. Medical records were available for abstraction on 97.8% of eligible patients. The average age of the study patients was 71.5 years (SD, 11.6). Women accounted for 68% of the patients. The mean hospital length of stay was 6.5 days (SD, 4.8). The outcomes of the patients were as follows: 94% discharged to home; 4.4% transferred to another facility; and 1.6% deaths.
The proportion of patients classified as low risk according to the
DISCUSSION
Patients hospitalized with exacerbation of COPD are commonly treated in the short-term care setting for approximately 6 to 8 days, although there is little evidence to suggest that this length of stay is necessary for all patients.9 The retrospective study demonstrates that when patients are classified as low risk according to our guideline, the hospital length of stay could potentially be shortened to 3.2 days, with probably little effect on quality of care. As a consequence of this shortening
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Patricia Hobson, RN, Susan Edinger, RN, and Mary Reidinger, RN, for assistance in the collection of prospective data and with the statistical analysis.
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