Clinical Interventions Following Escalations from a Continuous Respiratory Monitoring Service in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background: Continuous respiratory monitoring can support integrated care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, by coupling them with remote clinical personnel who triage patients in coordination with their health care providers. When deploying such services, there remains uncertainty surrounding outcomes when at-risk patients are proactively identified and escalated for provider evaluation. This study presents findings from a service deployed in a real-world COPD cohort by analyzing the clinical interventions made during in-person and telehealth pulmonary outpatient visits following remote escalations.

Methods: A single-center, retrospective, observational study of real-world COPD patients at a multisite pulmonary practice was conducted. Patients who were enrolled in a continuous respiratory monitoring service for at least one year and were seen by a provider within 7 days of an escalation by the service (N=168) were included. To evaluate the potential impact of these escalations on provider and patient burden, medical charts from outpatient visits were manually reviewed and grouped into 6 categories based on the clinical action(s) taken by the provider.

Results: A total of 245 outpatient visits occurred from 168 patients within 7 days of escalation. Of the 245 visits, 206 (84.1%) resulted in clinical intervention and 163 (66.5%) resulted in treatment consistent with acute exacerbations of COPD. A total of 1.6% of the outpatient visits resulted in referral to the emergency department.

Conclusion: Provider encounters occurring following the escalation of a patient from a continuous respiratory monitoring service consistently resulted in that provider administering a treatment to the escalated patient.