PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - María Abad Arranz
AU  - Carmen Calero Acuña
AU  - Fernando Romero Valero
AU  - Antonio Hidalgo Molina
AU  - Ruth Ayerbe Garcia
AU  - Ricardo Ismael Aguilar Perez-Grovas
AU  - Francisco Garcia Gil
AU  - Laura Caballero Ballesteros
AU  - Francisco Casas Maldonado
AU  - Maria Sánchez Palop
AU  - Alejandro Segado Soriano
AU  - Dolores Pérez Tejero
AU  - José Calvo Bonachera
AU  - Bárbara Hernández Sierra
AU  - Adolfo Doménech del Rio
AU  - Macarena Arroyo Valera
AU  - Francisco Gonzalez Vargas
AU  - Juan José Cruz Rueda
AU  - José Luis López-Campos Bodineau
TI  - Variability in clinical practice for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in outpatient clinics
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA3663
DP  - 2015 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - PA3663
VI  - 46
IP  - suppl 59
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA3663.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA3663.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2015 Sep 01; 46
AB  - Objectives: At the moment no studies have evaluated a clinical audit of clinical practice in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the outpatient visits so far. This work is a first pilot project that aims to assess the variability of clinical practice for COPD in this care setting through a clinical audit.Methods: Pilot medical record audit conducted in specialised outpatient Pneumology clinic from 9 public hospitals in Andalusia (Spain) between October 2013 and September 2014. The project goal was to audit 80 cases per centre distributed over the year. The information was collected by standardized questionnaire with 182 variables. The data are described in means and inter-hospital ranges to evaluate between centres variability.Results: During study analysed 621 stories. Patients were mostly men, in the seventh decade of life, with a percentage of current smokers of 26.2%, a considerable number of comorbidities and mostly the urban area. The data indicate that health care is generally correct as average but indicating areas for improvement in some points and considerable variability between centres with significant differences (p <0.001) for inter-centre changes most variables.Conclusions: Health care COPD patients in outpatient Pneumology clinics shows considerable variability that probably cannot be explained only by the patient's clinical condition. Future studies should elucidate which factors influence this variability.