{"id":42375,"date":"2019-02-13T17:46:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T22:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=42375"},"modified":"2022-12-14T11:28:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T16:28:59","slug":"copd-decision-tool-helps-keep-patients-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/copd-decision-tool-helps-keep-patients-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"COPD decision tool helps keep patients safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Ian Stiell is known around the world for creating decision rules that improve patient care, such as the Ottawa Ankle Rules, the Canadian C-Spine Rule, and now The Ottawa COPD Risk Scale.<\/em><\/p>\n

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often come to the Emergency Department gasping for breath. These flare-ups can usually be treated safely in the ED, but sometimes they can lead to serious complications.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Dr. Ian Stiell created a decision tool to help doctors accurately predict which patients were the most likely to suffer complications.<\/p>\n

A recent study published in CMAJ<\/a> found that The Ottawa COPD Risk Scale is better than current practice at predicting these short-term risks. Now, this made-in-Ottawa tool can be used by doctors around the world to help choose the best care for their patients with COPD.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore this tool, there was no way to know if a patient who came to the Emergency Department with a COPD flare-up was going to have serious complications,\u201d said Dr. Stiell<\/a>, also a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and distinguished professor at the University of Ottawa. \u201cThis new information can help doctors decide whether to admit a patient or send them home.\u201d<\/p>\n

COPD is a group of diseases that block airways and affects 11 percent of Canadians over age 35. Flare-ups of the disease make it harder to breathe and can lead to complications like needing a breathing machine or having a heart attack or death. However, identifying which patients will experience these complications is challenging. Dr. Stiell\u2019s team previously found that about half of patients with COPD who suffer adverse events in Canada do so after being sent home. Until now, there has been little evidence to help prevent this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tool will improve care for patients with COPD by helping ensure that those at high risk of dangerous complications are admitted to the hospital, and those at low risk are sent home,\u201d said Dr. Stiell.<\/p>\n

Dr. Stiell noted that doctors consider many factors when deciding whether to admit a patient, including how much support they have at home and whether they can see a doctor within a week of their visit. The Ottawa COPD Risk Scale does not replace these considerations but provides additional information to help doctors make a decision.<\/p>\n

Dr. Stiell\u2019s research team developed a tool<\/a> based on data from 945 patients from Canadian hospitals. The 10-point scale includes elements from a patient\u2019s history, examination or tests conducted during their visit. These risk factors are easy to determine and do not need expensive further testing.<\/p>\n

A validation study with 1,415 more patients showed that using the risk scale is better than current practice. If used, it will likely increase COPD admissions for higher-risk patients while decreasing admissions of low-risk patients. Researchers don\u2019t expect this tool to cause a net increase in COPD admissions overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question that this tool can be used today,\u201d said Dr. Stiell. \u201cWhile designed for emergency physicians, it could also help others who serve patients with COPD, including respirologists, general internists and family doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Stiell is known around the world for creating decision rules that improve patient care, such as the Ottawa Ankle Rules and the Canadian C-Spine Rule. These rules are now available on a mobile app.<\/p>\n

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Research like this is possible because of generous support for\u00a0research to improve patient care<\/a> at The Ottawa Hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often come to the Emergency Department gasping for breath. Now, a made-in-Ottawa tool can be used by doctors around the world to help choose the best care for these patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":42376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[67,402,413],"class_list":["post-42375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-innovation","tag-leadership","tag-patient-safety"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}