Abstract

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) impacts 213 million people around the world. Americans health care cost for COPD is up to $49 billion. Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a penalty for 30 day readmissions of COPD.Aim: The goal was to decrease the COPD 30 day readmission and inpatient mortality below US national benchmarks by end 2022.Methods: Algorithm implemented across 2 hospitals encompassing 776 beds. Monthly task force meetings reviewed each readmission and mortality. Figure 1 shows COPD algorithm. During COVID surge, remote patient monitoring (RPM) was added to the algorithm shown in Figure 2.Results: There were a total of 265 COPD admissions in 2022. 30 day COPD readmission was 11.66% (US CMS benchmark 19.8%) and COPD 30 day all cause mortality was 5.39% (US CMA benchmark 8.4%).Conclusion: No data has been published that shows COPD 30 day readmissions and mortality achieving less than national US benchmark.  Multidisciplinary approach, adherance to algorithms, embrasing technology is pertinent in decreasing both COPD 30 day readmission and inpatient mortality.