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Daily multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings significantly reduced the length of hospital stay for patients with COPD, a study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (1 March 2020) has found[1]
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The researchers retrospectively analysed data on 1,683 patients who were admitted to a hospital for COPD exacerbations between 2011 and 2016. Patients who were at a hospital that implemented daily MDT meetings for COPD exacerbation were compared with a cohort from a similar local hospital that did not. The daily MDT focused on barriers to discharge and comprised one participant from each team involved in a patient’s care — such as medical, pharmacy, nutrition and occupational health — who came together around three hours after the multidisciplinary ward round.
The researchers found that the mean length of stay for patients at the hospital with a daily MDT was significantly shorter than for patients at the hospital that did not implement daily MDTs (3.4 days vs. 5.6 days).
Lack of systematic communication between healthcare professionals leads to delays in care and avoidable increases in hospital stay duration, the researchers concluded, saying: “The implementation of [MDTs] has the potential to make healthcare services and coordinated care more efficient and result in decreased cost related to the length of stay.”
References
[1] Shilian R, Abraham T, Wynbrandt J et al. J Am Osteopath Assoc 2020;120(3):144–152. doi: 10.7556/jaoa.2020.027
