Improving care of COPD diagnosis, rehab access, and care planning. Final evaluation report for Queensland Health (QH), Clinical Excellence Division

Improving care of COPD diagnosis, rehab access, and care planning. Final evaluation report for Queensland Health (QH), Clinical Excellence Division

The problem: Thousands of patients across Brisbane and Queensland are hospitalised for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) each year. Hospitalisations are significant negative outcomes that can sometimes be prevented with improved primary care management and patient rehabilitation programs for better health states, lower costs, and less engagement with acute care.

The innovation: The COPD project conducted a multi-component intervention with two arms that affected patient outcomes: introducing general practice (GP) clinical audits to better manage COPD patients in the primary care setting, and improving accessibility in rehabilitation from chronic COPD.

Key findings: We found several outcomes of interest. As a result of the GP audit, there was improved adherence to measuring the detection rates of COPD in the primary health sector, increasing GP engagement with COPD patients. This also improved adherence to best practice and preventive care, reducing length of stay (LOS) for admitted COPD patients by 18.3%, or one day on average. Emergency department (ED) data was unreliable and did not yield significant results. The mobile rehabilitation program achieved a slight increase of 0.04 quality-adjusted lifeyears as a result of the new service. The program significantly increased access, increasing completion rates by 11.9%, contributing to improved outcomes. The greater accessibility of rehab programs could potentially lead to further improvements in quality of life as more patients become able to attend.