How to prevent readmission to hospital after an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

HAS produces recommendations and tools to facilitate their use by health professionals. The objective is to inform health professionals, patients and health care users of current best practices and care pathway with the aim of providing the best care at the best time according to the patient’s expectation.

Key points

Effective interventions to reduce the risk of readmission are:

• while in hospital : patient education continued after discharge, implementation of useful actions on the basis of a checklist and the appointment of a manager to oversee the discharge and ensure continuity of care;
• after discharge : pulmonary rehabilitation and the organization and coordination of the care pathway after a stay in hospital.