Pulmonary Rehab Program Chronic Lung

Pulmonary Rehab Program

Chronic lung diseases have developed to become major public health issues since they are the fourth major cause of annual deaths. While most of these diseases are preventable, they account for a huge portion of the number of hospitalizations and visits to emergency rooms in a hospital. Some of the major chronic lung diseases include Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), chronic asthma, chest wall disease, interstitial lung disease, and obstructive airways disease. The growth and development of these diseases into severe stages is mainly attributed to the tendency by patients to ignore the symptoms of the illnesses as mere smoking cough. Notably, the main cause of the chronic lung diseases is smoking, which has become a common habit for people of all ages and genders.

This article is a proposal for a hospital whose current health care system does not have a pulmonary rehab program despite of the increase in the number of admissions and readmission of patients with such conditions. The current situation at the hospital has contributed to frustrations among physicians, high treatment costs, increase rates of patients with these conditions, and inability to provide standard quality of care. Therefore, this proposal has been developed to enable the hospital to handle the demand volume for inpatient and outpatient services for chronic lung diseases. The scope of this program is to provide rehabilitation services to various kinds of individuals with chronic lung diseases and other respiratory conditions. Upon implementation, the program will enable the hospital to provide standard of care, lessen physicians' frustrations, and reduce the overall cost of healthcare expenses at the hospital. The ability of the program to achieve these goals is embedded on the various aspects it addresses such as education, exercise, nutrition counseling, and emotion management.

The implementation of the program will involve the inclusion of health care providers like physicians, nurses, dietitians, and rehabilitation therapists in the various aspects associated with patients with respiratory conditions. The program will not only provide ways for self-management of the disease through education, exercise, emotion management, and nutrition counseling; but it will also act as a template for managing the diseases in a community setting. Notably, this implementation process will involve the use of a pulmonary rehabilitation coordinator with the responsibility of managing the various elements of the program and the necessary healthcare providers.

Pulmonary Rehab Program:

Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program is a multi-disciplinary and multimodal plan whose main approach and goal is to enhance the functional status and quality of life of individuals with chronic lung disease. These programs are usually centered on endurance exercise training that is accompanied with improved understanding of the disease process, enhanced coping skills, and an increased emphasis on empowering the patient for self-management (Solway, 2008). These programs generally differ in their scope, duration, and the setting they are carried out i.e. inpatient or outpatient settings. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the programs, many health care professionals including physicians and nurses may be involved in them. Moreover, the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program usually includes education and counseling, guidance on exercise and nutrition, and psychosocial support. The major goal of implementing the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program within the hospital is to help lessen the costs of hospitalization and enhance the efficiency of treatments of lung disease. Moreover, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program will help in meeting the demands of high inpatient or outpatient referral volume and enhance the satisfaction of physicians with patient care. This program will also be crucial in enabling the hospital to plan for the increased volume of GOLD COPD Stage II -- IV patients as stipulated by Center for Medical Services (Connors, 2011).

Project Scope:

The program will achieve its purpose through meeting the needs of the major patient populations with chronic respiratory illnesses. It will be provided to a wide range of patients including those whose breathlessness has functionally disabled them or patients with an MRC score of three and above. Secondly, pulmonary rehabilitation will be provided to every patient with an MTC score of two with disabled and symptomatic condition. These patients will also undergo the rehabilitation because of their need for health care professional evaluation and supervision instead of mere advice on lifestyle changes. As a result of these distinct considerations, pulmonary rehabilitation will not be offered universally to every individual with an MRC score of two. Thirdly, patients with a ratified diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and other developing chronic lung conditions will be eligible for pulmonary rehabilitation. The most common progressive chronic lung situations that would require the rehabilitation include interstitial lung disease, chest wall disease, bronchiectasis, and pre and post thoracic surgery. The fourth category of patients to offered pulmonary rehabilitation is those with recent exacerbation of COPD requiring hospitalization, without the anticipated recovery path, and whose functional baseline has changed significantly ("Service Specification," 2012).

The Problem:

Chronic lung diseases have developed to become one of the most common respiratory illnesses across the country. As the diseases have become one of the major reasons for hospitalizations of patients, they usually affect individuals at the age of 35 years and above despite of the fact that these individuals are usually not diagnosed until they are 50 years and above. The growth and rapid increase of chronic diseases is attributed to the tendency of many people with the disease not to get medical assistance. While the conditions continue to progress into other severe stages, these people do not seek medical help because they always ignore the symptoms of the illnesses as mere smoker's cough. In the past few years, men and women have become increasingly vulnerable to chronic lung diseases even though these rates are slightly increasing among women than men. These diseases are major public health issues because of the rapid increase of respiratory problems that account for most readmissions and hospital emergency room visits.

The most common progressive respiratory disease is the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a name that is also used to refer to a collection of lung diseases ("Introduction," 2012). The other common chronic lung diseases include emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chest wall disease, interstitial lung disease, chronic asthma, and obstructive airways disease. These chronic lung diseases usually involve a combination of three major factors i.e. airway diseases, lung circulation diseases, and lung tissue diseases. As the name suggests, the airway diseases affect the airways or tubes that transport oxygen and other gases to and from the lungs. In contrast, the lung tissues diseases affect the lung tissue structure through inflammation or scarring of the tissue. Lung circulation diseases affect the blood vessels in the lungs through scarring, clotting, or inflammation of these vessels. As a result, these diseases contribute to difficulties of the lungs to receive oxygen and release carbon dioxide. The severity of chronic lung diseases is basically dependent on the combination of these three conditions. However, most of the chronic lung diseases are attributed to the narrowing or blockage of the airways. For instance, emphysema, COPD, and chronic bronchitis are conditions that inhibit the ability of the tubes or airways to carry oxygen and other gases to and from the lungs. Generally, patients with chronic lung diseases such as COPD always have difficulties breathing because of airflow obstruction or narrowing of the airways.