House call program helps COPD patients reduce hospital visits

The Community Cares program helps COPD patients stay out of the hospital by helping patients better manage their disease. This promising practice includes home health visits, 24-hour telephone support access, virtual visit computer and smartphone technology and care coordination among nursing, social work and other hospital-based resources. Numbers of readmissions for initial participants dropped from pre-program rates of 61 total hospitalizations to five after two months of implementation.