National COPD Readmissions Summit 2013: Integrating COPD into Patient-Centered Hospital Readmissions Reduction Programs

In October 2013, the COPD Foundation convened a multi-stakeholder National COPD Readmissions Summit to summarize their understanding of how to reduce hospital readmissions in patients hospitalized for COPD exacerbations. More than 225 individuals participated in the Summit, including patients, clinicians, health service researchers, policy makers and representatives of academic health care centers, industry and payers. This paper includes an overview of Summit participation, COPD and HRRP, interventions for COPD exacerbations and the summary and recommendations that resulted from the event.