NY Hospital Seeks Partners for COPD Disease Management Project

October 22, 2012

AARC is working with Crouse Hospital to identify respiratory care departments who are interested in participating in a project that seeks to prove the value of respiratory therapists as in-patient COPD disease managers.

The project, spearheaded by Dr. Russ Acevedo, originally began 3 years ago at Crouse Hospital and Syracuse University School of Management, but they are now seeking to expand to other institutions which would be interested in being part of a multicenter proof-of-concept project.

The elements of the project are:

Primary Care Model—Each COPD patient will have a Primary RT who is responsible for their care.

In-patient Management—The Primary RT will use evidence-based protocols to deliver care consistent with current guidelines.

Disease Management—The Primary RT will assess for anxiety, depression, mobility issues, nutritional issues, smoking cessation and advance directives as examples.

Transition Coaching—The Transition Coach, also a RT, will interface with the in-patient care team and the Primary RT with the discharge plan.

Creative Scheduling—Moving away from unit based RTs to a “swat team” model.

Dr. Acevdeo explained that he is looking for other institutions that would be interested in partnering with Crouse to implement this program and help them prove this concept. “A multi-center pilot would carry more weight than a single center project. We believe this would be a big step forward for the RT profession, if successful,” he said.

He explained that they will share everything they’ve done including protocols, patient education materials, RT education materials and videos, and Crouse Hospital will be the center to coordinate the data collection.

To learn more about the project and for more information on participating, please contact Dr. Russ Acevedo.