Essay On Hospital Readmission

I will analyse the prevalence of the condition and what the potential causes may be. My interests have been directed to pre hospital care and community lead treatment packages, which are potentially available to the patient, as this is the acute environment, which I will have contact with in my employment as a paramedic. The initial reading was to understand COPD as a chronic condition, what is COPD? and its prevalence in the population. The (World health organisation, 2000), states that one in four deaths in the world are caused by COPD. In 2010 (Vos T Flaxman etal, 2012), says globally there were approximately 329 million, which is 4.8% of the population who are affected by this chronic condition, In the UK (NICE, 2010), have estimated that 3 million people suffer from COPD, with more yet to be diagnosed. This information about the amount of people living with this condition was surprising, as I little knowledge of its existence. During the early 1960’s (Timothy Q. Howes, 2005), says the term COPD had been designated as a single term unifying all the chronic respiratory diseases. Since then the term COPD, has been sub divided in to three umbrella areas, Bronchitis, Emphysema and Chronic asthma, which are separate conditions, which I have been previously aware of as their individual conditions. The 58 year old patient who we visited,

The overall process of discharging a patient from a hospital and the transition back home or to a care facility are critical advancements in the overall course of both acute and long-term care. It is important that the hospitals releasing these patients have ensured the proper overall course of care from beginning to end. The lack of consistency with both the discharge process and the quality of discharge planning has led to many avoidable readmissions. To reduce the amount of hospital readmissions, it is imperative that hospitals recognize the need for focused patient care and that programs are being implemented to assist in the care transition.

Background: Comorbidities are common and significant in COPD, often contributing to symptoms, exacerbations, hospital admissions and mortality.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about 5.7 million people in the United

COPD is one of the greatest causes of disability and mortality in the twenty first century with future predictions painting an even graver story. Occupation, genome, and primarily smoking are the main causes of COPD. COPD is the third leading cause of death in America, claiming the lives of 134,676 Americans in 2010. Symptoms are typical of a constant smokers cough which progresses into the debilitating palliative stage of the disease; the development of co-morbidities exacerbates these symptoms. COPD has a complex pathophysiology involving hyperinflation, excessive mucus production and airway remodeling; diagnosis is through lung function tests. COPD is poorly managed with few effective treatments and a poor

The cause of COPD is from long term smokers and also from people who smoke marijuana which increases a higher risk of COPD. Normally it begins with a cold or infection of the pharynx. Chest pain along with coughing having shortness of breath, and wheezing

The biggest issue that contribute to the disease is smoking.It has been tested that women have had increase in smoking since the first world war. On the other had that number rapidly decreased in the last 7 decades. On the other hand 16 percent of canadians ranging from ages as young as 16 years old and older and these people would smoke everyday decreasing since the 60’s. But there was not a big significant change on the air flow being prevented to pass through the airways. Canadians ages ranging 60 to 79 were more likely to have measured COPD than those aged 35 to

These diseases are mainly caused by the use of tobacco, but also can be triggered from pollution in the air. People who are in contact with second-hand smoke may also experience COPD. Other risk-factors include poorly ventilated homes and fuels that burn during cooking. People 40 years of age or older and have some history of smoking are at increased risk for developing this condition. More than 11 million people are diagnosed with chronic obstruction pulmonary disease.

A. has a history of smoking for 50 years and being diagnosed with COPD 2 years ago. Development of COPD and its exacerbations may be a leading caused by bacteria, viruses, or environmental pollutants, including cigarette smoke. Coussa, et al, “Expiratory flow limitation (EFL), as a consequence of airway inflammation is the pathophysiological hallmark of COPD.” Exacerbations fundamentally reflect acute worsening of EFL and there is evidence for both increased airway inflammatory activity and worsening airway obstruction as likely explanations.

Patients will usually have the symptoms seen in asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Exposure to noxious stimuli such as cigarette smoke is a major cause of COPD. Symptoms include productive cough, shortness of breath and wheezing (Nagelmann et al., 2011).

One of the leading concerns affecting the health care system is the high rates of unplanned hospital readmissions. While some readmissions are an appropriate part of treatment, many patients are admitted back into the hospitals due to avoidable factors that compromised their health. This critical issue, according to the Dartmouth Atlas Project, has now become a measure of the quality of hospital care. As a result, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) currently penalizes hospitals with high rates of 30-day readmissions for certain conditions (PerryUndem Research & Communications, 2013). Aside from the governmental costs, those most affected are the patients, families, and their providers. Effective programs assessing the discharge plan and care coordination must be enforced to diminish the number of hospital readmissions and potential health complications.

COPD is an important disease to be informed about because it affects millions of people. This paper discusses signs and symptoms, treatments, abnormalities you may find, as well as many of interesting things about COPD. Being informed about COPD can also possibly decrease your chances of developing the disease.

Recidivism in healthcare is custom of patients to return to hospitals for treatment within a certain time period. Patient recidivism have increased. Readmission raters are included in the reimbursement for CMS as part of the ACA which punishes health systems with a readmission rates through the hospital readmission reduction programs. Since the start of this penalty there have been programs to help lower the readmission rates. “Medicare uses an “all-cause” definition of readmission, meaning that hospital stays within 30 days of a discharge from an initial hospitalization are considered readmissions, regardless of the reason for the readmission”( Casillas 2017).

Prior to 2012, when these laws changed, there were not significant financial penalties or benefits for keeping patients from being readmitted. With this change, CMS’s hope was to keep more money for Medicare benefits and have better outcomes for patients. “Historically, nearly 20% of all Medicare discharges had a readmission within 30 days. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has estimated that 12% of readmissions are potentially avoidable. Preventing even 10% of these readmissions could save Medicare $1 billion” (McIlvennan, et

The main cause of COPD is smoking, the more smoking the worse it gets, because smoking causes the lungs to inflame which then causes scarring, and by time the scarring leads to permanent changes in the lung which then leads to COPD.