Background: Continuity of care, consisting of professional care and patient self-management, is one of the key factors for caring for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined intervention to improve continuity of care patients with COPD on clinical outcomes, health-related quality of life and healthcare cost.

Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-post study was carried out at an outpatient COPD clinic of a district hospital in Thailand from October 2021 to October 2022. Adult patients with COPD who visited the COPD clinic for >6 months were eligible. The intervention consisted of multidisciplinary team combined interventions. All patients were assessed for targeted mMRC dyspnea scale, acute exacerbation, emergency department (ER) visit, hospitalization, quality of life, and healthcare cost before and after 6 months of the intervention?s implementation.

Results: A total of 111 patients were included. Most patients were male (85 patients, 67.6%) and average age was 67.3 ± 12.0 years. The percentage of patients with the targeted mMRC dyspnea scale < 2 increased from 68.5% to 86.2% (p<.05). The acute exacerbation, number of hospitalization and ER visit were also significantly decreased (p<.05). The percentage of patient?s quality of life defined by CAT score <10 increased from 65.7% to 85.6% (p<.05). Total medical cost decreased from 876,624 to 560,774 Thai baht ($27,394 to $17,524).

Conclusions: The combined intervention to improve continuity of care has both clinical and economic benefits in patients with COPD.