Abstract
Introduction:
Four hundred admissions annually to North Tyneside General Hospital with COPD, high rate of Social Service input, high rate of consultations and house calls to GPs, high rate of elderly patients.
Rationale:
Patients with COPD require care, encompassing physical, medical, social, psychological and social needs. The limitations of the current service provision highlighted a vulnerable client group that was receiving fragmented care. Social Services and the Respiratory Team at NTGH identified the unmet needs in patients with COPD. The COPD Service was therefore initiated to provide a flexible, needs led, proactive and health-promoting service. The Service comprises of a Respiratory Nurse Specialist who leads a team of six generic outreach workers. Since commencement of referrals in July 2000 to the end of March 2001 the service had received 115 referrals. Fity-five of these patients were provided with Outreach support. Fourty-five patients were assessed and appropriate needs addressed solely by the Respiratory Nurse Specialist. Fifteen were inappropriate referrals to the service.
Evaluation:
The service was reviewed at the end of March in conjunction with the University of Northumbria. Postal questionnaires were sent to all patients with an 82% response rate. Telephone interviews with 6 patients, interviews with all staff. At that time the active caseload was 33 patients.
Mean age was 75 years
58% Male, 42% Female
MRC Scale 5–76%
66% on Oxygen therapy, 45% LTOT, 21% p.r.n.
The caseload can be divided into four main bands, palliative care, exercise and breathing training, social isolation and carer relief.
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Mylotte, A. Flexible Needs led Community COPDOutreach Service. Prim Care Respir J 10, 77–78 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/pcrj.2001.31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pcrj.2001.31