COPD patients overprescribed home oxygen
In addition to medications, home oxygen therapy is often prescribed when patients are discharged from the hospital.
A study of 69 patients who were continued on home oxygen therapy after hospitalization for an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was presented by Analisa Taylor, MD, from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Despite guideline recommendations that patients be reassessed within 90 days of discharge, only 38 patients in the cohort were reassessed, and “28 were considered eligible for discontinuation,” she said during her presentation.
However, “of those, only four were ultimately discontinued,” she reported.
The reason for this gap needs to be examined, noted Dr. Taylor, suggesting that “perhaps clinical inertia plays a role in the continuation of previously prescribed therapy despite a lack of ongoing clinical benefit.”
A version of this article originally appeared on Medscape.com.