PRAXIS: Prevent and Reduce COPD Admissions through eXpertise and Innovation Sharing
Posted on September 25, 2015 |
This blog post was written by Kristen Willard, MS.
The COPD Foundation is excited to announce the launch of PRAXIS (Prevent and Reduce COPD Admissions through eXpertise and Innovation Sharing), a new initiative for healthcare providers, health systems administrators, and policy makers created to improve COPD care across the continuum and reduce preventable hospital readmissions. The site will go live on Monday, September 28, 2015.
COPD-related exacerbations cause approximately 800,000 hospitalizations and 1.5 million emergency room visits annually. In 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) to reduce the risk of hospital readmissions in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia or heart failure. In October of 2013, the CMS HRRP was expanded to include hospitalizations for COPD exacerbations.
Following this announcement, the COPD Foundation held a multi-stakeholder National COPD Readmissions Summit to brainstorm ways to reduce hospital readmissions in patients hospitalized for COPD exacerbations. Five main themes emerged from the summit, including; COPD cannot be ignored by health systems, communities and future research initiatives; initiatives to reduce readmissions must be focused beyond just 30 days to make a meaningful impact on patient outcomes; community and the patient voice must be recognized throughout these efforts; interventions will need to be tailored to the settings in which they implemented; and the system needs infrastructure to promote and sustain collaboration.
The mission of PRAXIS is to prevent and reduce hospital admissions through expertise and innovation sharing.
The backbone of PRAXIS will be an interactive website that has five main components:
- Discussion boards and a blog to facilitate sharing of promising practices
- A resource repository full of toolkits and articles related to improving COPD care and reducing readmissions
- A learning center where we will host live, video and paper professional development opportunities
- A policy corner containing policy statements and legislative news
- An innovation center where we’ll keep the community up to date on promising new approaches and technology
The initiative launches on September 28, 2015 at www.copdfoundation.org. For more information, contact Kristen Willard, Director of Health Outcomes at kwillard@copdfoundation.org.