CHEST Guidelines-Response_chest

Response_chest - 1

Pdf Summary

The response letter, authored by Drs. Rachel Gavish, Amalia Levy, Or Kalchiem Dekel, Erez Karp, and Nimrod Maimon, addresses comments from Drs. Hatipoğlu and Wang on their article published in "Chest." The initial study examined the connection between hospital readmissions and pulmonologist follow-up visits for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), focusing specifically on readmissions caused by COPD exacerbations. The authors did not aim to investigate the reduction of readmissions from all causes, but they underscore the significance of preventing some COPD-related readmissions.<br /><br />In their research, previous visits with a pulmonologist were not included in the final model of risk factors for readmission within 90 days, or within the Cox proportional hazard model, because the one-variable analysis showed no significant association. Instead, the study opted to utilize variables like previous hospitalizations and pulmonologist visits as count numbers in most models. Notably, in the Cox regression model, the "previous hospitalizations" variable was treated as dichotomous (none; one or more) to avoid interaction issues.<br /><br />The researchers further elaborate on the various statistical methods employed and specify that changes and the rationale for these alterations were documented in the published article's Table 4. They clarify their approach to illustrate the methodological choices that impacted their analysis outcomes.<br /><br />Additional disclosures state that the authors have no conflicts of interest regarding the content. Dr. Nimrod Maimon, associated with Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, serves as the contact for any correspondence regarding the study, which was published in 2015 by the American College of Chest Physicians.

Keywords

COPD

hospital readmissions

pulmonologist follow-up

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Cox regression model

statistical methods

Soroka University Medical Center

Chest journal

risk factors

American College of Chest Physicians