COPD

[csmill]

I am in the process of getting information gathered to write my comp. My topic at this point is "Quality of care for COPD patients receiving home care" I have been trying to find studies in the nursing lit. to show the prevalence of COPD patients receiving home care and have come up with 0. Anyone with suggestion on where to look? or give me an idea of the prevalence in your practice?

Thank you

[jkh]

Maybe you could get some statistics from a medical supply store that supplys oxygen to people with COPD. Do they offer other services or just supply the oxygen? Talk to a respitory therapist. Is there a support group for people with COPD in your community that you could attend? Hope this helps.

[funsunsue]

Perhaps you could contact a home health agency in your area and speak with the director of nursing or nurse manager, they keep a list of patients and primary dx. (privacy issue?)

I can tell you that if i see 24 patients in one week at least 25% of them have copd as primary or secondary dx.

I feel quality of care is excellent, patients are less stressed when they have developed a relationship with a visiting nurse who is intune with their progress or declines.

[DIDI]

The above are giving good sug., My Mom is a pt. with COPD at home. The company that supplies O2 have resp. therpist on staff.Mom has a therpist once a month now, though when she first came home it was once a week. The company keeps up with any other medical problems. Mom does not have home nursing, at least not at this point. I work for Home Services for the local Hospital, we have several pts. with COPD and other resp. problems. All departments work together, we have case conferences with the pts. and or family with at least one member of each dept.We live in central IN, there are several companies that supply home care needs, that would be your best bet, or if you know someone in your area working in home health. Hope this helps/di

[mommyfirstRN]

You may check with the director of nursing or more specifically the Quality Assurance nurses with your local Home Health agencies. Most are or will be mandated to be in the Oasis program, which is a federal and JACHO mandated law for homehealth agencies. This is a tracking form which Rn's must perform every 60 days or with each hospitalization on every patient. This way you could get statistics without violating patient cofidentiality. I'm not sure if they can release this info, but it is out there. Maybe you could network with fellow nurses, or work prn for an agency to find out how it works. Good luck.

[csmill]

George, R.B. & San Pedro, G.S.(1999). Introduction to symposium on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The American Journal of Medical Sciences 318(2)pg 73

COPD "is the third most frequent justification for home care services"