Reducing 30-Day All-Cause Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Readmission Rate With a Multidisciplinary Quality Improvement Project

Our objective was to implement a comprehensive quality improvement project to decrease the 30-day readmission rate for all-cause acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) at a rural Midwestern community hospital in the United States. Prospective data were collected from January 1 to December 31, 2017. A total of 77 patients met the study criteria and were included for analysis. Baseline data analysis involved data for 72 patients from September 1, 2015, to October 1, 2016, and showed a 30.6% all-cause 30-day AECOPD readmission rate. The Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) model was used for this quality improvement project. All aspects of this project were successfully implemented, and the resulting 30-day all-cause AECOPD readmission rate decreased to 16.9% during the study time frame. Through this comprehensive quality improvement project, the 30-day all-cause AECOPD readmission rate was reduced by 23.7%.