"Our goal was to show a reduction in 30-day all cause readmission rates for COPD patients discharged from SLU hospital after an acute exacerbation by implementing education tools and telehealth follow-up appointments. Patients being discharged were recruited for the study and received a follow up Zoom, Facetime, or phone call twice weekly for 30 days. Each phone call included the following: Brief health literacy screen, CAT assessment, and a standardized questionnaire. The group met with COPD physicians, physical therapy, and respiratory therapy to expand our knowledge enough to provide quality care and education to the COPD patients prior to beginning the study. In total, six patients completed the study.

In conclusion, patients felt more supported and confident in their ability to control their health affairs while outside the hospital. Patients felt more confident about medication administration as well as reaching out for help. More studies need to be completed to include a larger patient population as phone call adherence was difficult to maintain. In the future, patient's personal contact and consent information must be more readily available for study to have greater accuracy."