Home care helps prevent recurring trips to the hospital for COPD patients
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With chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), breathing is difficult, there’s often a nagging cough and a slight cold can land a patient in the hospital. But a local nurse practitioner hopes to prevent those trips, by providing help at home.
Working with the P.A. Parkland Health Region, Tanya Miller has been using home care to save COPD patients a trip to emergency rooms and walk-in clinics. These visits can often be avoided if a patient has the proper tools to self-manage their condition and a care provider to help them within their home, she said.
“When they become ill, people with COPD don’t have a very long time before they get very ill. So what might start off as a cough for you or me, can become pneumonia or an exacerbation of their COPD,” Miller said.
Since the program started in June 2015, Miller said she visits about five to 10 clients a day. She said in the 10 months she’s been doing this job, there has been a significant drop in emergency visits.
