
Research from the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Minneapolis VA Health Care System found that people living in rural areas, those facing longer drive times to specialized care and those seeing multiple providers for full care were more likely to receive suboptimal inhaler regimens after being hospitalized for COPD.
Ariane Baldomero, MD, MS, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said the study used the National Veterans Health Administration electronic health record data to examine the receipt of guideline-discordant inhaler regimens among patients discharged from the hospital for COPD exacerbation. The data was examined in terms of rurality, drive time to the closest pulmonary specialty care and fragmented care.
“This work could help tailor health system efforts by contributing to our understanding of how factors such as geographical access to and fragmentation of health care are associated with the delivery of guideline-discordant care for patients with COPD,” Dr. Baldomero said.
The researchers recommend the development of proactive health care delivery methods tailored for high-risk COPD patients facing these geographic challenges. They plan to engage stakeholders, including rural patients and caregivers, primary care providers, clinic staff and VA leadership to design effective programs for improving care delivery.