New program provides increased access to pulmonary rehabilitation within a month of discharge and expands capacity
Program to significantly improve health outcomes for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients and decreasing hospitalizations
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a leading cause of acute hospitalizations in Canada, and the only chronic disease with rising mortality rates. Despite evidence that shows pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is associated with improved quality of life and a 56% reduction in hospital readmission when started within 30 days post discharge, less than 1% of patients with COPD access these programs.
Wanting to tackle these issues within their own organization, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton sought out a solution. The goal was to implement a virtual pulmonary rehabilitation program for COPD patients that is integrated with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s (SJHH) Epic hospital information system. Expected outcomes for COPD patients on this program include improved quality of life, physical activity, and disease self-management and reduced risk of hospital readmission and emergency department visits. The Epic interface is a core success criterion for this program to ensures effective integration within existing clinical workflows and high-end user adoption.
Building on the successful partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., Aetonix, Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), and the Respiratory Rehabilitation Day Program (RRDP) in providing access to technology to patients enrolled in the existing program; SJHH partnered with CAN Health Network and selected Aetonix to support this new program. CAN Health Network works directly with healthcare operators across Canada to help identify innovative homegrown solutions to health care challenges. Aetonix is an Ottawa-based digital health company that has a strong commitment to interoperability and develops easy to use virtual care platforms to provide telehealth, care pathways, and remote patient monitoring for patients and clinicians.
With support from CAN Health, the OCI, and Boehringer Ingelheim Canada, the organizations built the virtual rehabilitation pathway targeting admitted COPD patients and established the first HL7 integration between Epic and Aetonix. Specifically, patients admitted to hospital with a COPD exacerbation will be eligible for this 10-week program where they will receive:
- An Aetonix tablet and oximeter to use for the duration of the program
- Virtual exercise sessions with a physiotherapist twice a week
- Prompts to complete independent exercises
- Prompts to independently review educational content developed by the team at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
- Virtual touchpoints with a COPD educator to reinforce educational learnings
In addition, the Epic integration ensures that patient demographics, appointment information, and health data are shared seamlessly and securely between Aetonix and Epic, reducing documentation errors and manual transcription of information in both systems. Importantly, this innovative HL7 integration can be leveraged by other Canadian hospitals using Epic within their organization.