Daily Integrated Care Conferences to Reduce Length of Hospital Stay for Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Abstract Context Inefficiencies in care coordination—specifically, the lack of an effective method of communication among multiple health care professionals—often leads to an unnecessary increase in length of hospital stay. Objective To determine whether daily integrated care conferences (ICCs) would significantly reduce the length of stay for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation. Method Patients with COPD exacerbation were selected for the study using electronic medical records from 2 osteopathic community hospitals located in northeastern Ohio. One hospital used daily ICCs and the other hospital did not use daily ICCs. The average length of stay for patients at each hospital was retrospectively investigated. Results A total of 1683 patients with COPD exacerbation were selected. The mean (SD) length of stay in the hospital with daily ICCs was 3.37 (2.89) days compared with 5.55 (3.99) days in the hospital without daily ICCs (P<.0001). At the hospital with daily ICCs, patients aged 40 to 69 years had a 67% shorter hospital stay and patients aged 70 to 99 years or older had a 36% shorter length of stay compared with patients at the hospital without daily ICCs. Conclusion Daily integrated care conferences significantly reduced the length of stay for patients with COPD exacerbation at an osteopathic community-based hospital. Implementing daily ICCs may make current health care services and coordinated care more efficient, resulting in decreased costs and length of stay for patients with COPD exacerbation.