Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan HC(1), Cheung PY(1), Lui SR(1), Yip PY(1), Choi CM(1), Tsang HC(1), To YL(1), Sun TF(2)
Affiliation :
(1)Physiotherapy Department, North District Hospital
(2)Hospital Chief Executive Office, North District Hospital
Introduction :
LTOT is beneficial for improving survival, reducing hospitalization, and improving quality of life in patients with chronic respiratory failure.
In NDH, physiotherapists take a major role in LTOT prescription, arrangement and follow-up. A LTOT patient registry was developed since 2008 for better clinical data collection, retrieval and analysis.
In view of the rising LTOT service demands, regular review of the service is necessary. The LTOT patient registry could be useful for evaluating service quality.
Objectives :
To review the LTOT patient registry in NDH for exploring potential service gaps and improving quality of care for patients with chronic respiratory failure.
Methodology :
Patients’ basic demographics, diagnosis, oxygen titration results and information of oxygen concentrators were retrieved from the registry and analyzed.
Result & Outcome :
Results and Outcomes:
There were 301 patients in the registry. Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease made up the largest proportion (40.2%). The second most common diagnosis was lung cancer and metastasis (27.2%), followed by pneumonia (7.6%), congestive heart failure (7.0%), bronchiectasis (4.7%), pleural effusion (4.7%) and others (8.6%).
Mean age was 75.8±11.8, showing most of them were elderly. Therapists should be aware of the importance of conciseness and educational support in giving LTOT advice. In NDH, all patients requiring LTOT are provided with an educational booklet before their treatment commenced. In order to facilitate understanding, a trial of using QR codes to retrieve LTOT information was also implemented in 2018 and received positive feedback. Different information retrieval systems could enhance patients’ efficacy in handling the therapy.
To encourage outdoor activities, Portable Oxygen Concentrators (POCs) were prescribed to suitable patients. 8.6% of the patients were prescribed with POC. Only 30.8% of them received full subsidy from Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. Financial assistance may need to be considered so as to facilitate POC usage.
Conclusion:
The LTOT patient registry provides important data including demographics and financial status for analysis. The data is useful in identifying service potential gaps and enhancing service quality for patients with chronic respiratory failure.
