Simple intervention improved spirometry adherence for outpatient cystic fibrosis clinic

Pre-clinic phone call reminders improved the number of patients with cystic fibrosis who submitted home spirometry test results prior to their telehealth visit, researchers reported at the virtual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference.

Laura Russian, BSRC, RRT, RPFT, pediatric respiratory therapist at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, and Kathy Villagomez, RRT, program coordinator and respiratory therapist at the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center of Central Texas, Austin, presented results from 184 patients with cystic fibrosis who had telehealth visits from October 2020 to March 2021. Initial provider communication involved emailing or calling patients before their scheduled telehealth visit to remind them to submit home spirometry data prior to the visit. If spirometry results were not submitted, providers would follow-up by email or phone after the telehealth visit.

One hundred forty patients (76%) submitted their at-home spirometry results before or on the day of their telehealth visit. Researchers conducted follow-up communication with 34 of the 44 patients who did not submit their spirometry results; thereafter, 12 submitted their data. In all, 83% of patients completed their submissions.

Russian noted several barriers observed during this project including:

• Some patients did not have their devices on hand for the telehealth visit.
• Many patients did not prep their devices or install the appropriate app for the telehealth visit.
• Many patients waited to perform their at-home spirometry testing during the telehealth visit.

“As respiratory therapists, we recognize the challenge in obtaining this information, as many [patients] have already expressed virtual fatigue. ... We realize that proactive communication with patients prior to clinic can help overcome these barriers,” Russian said.

Overall, researchers observed a 16% higher rate of spirometry result submissions before or on the day of a patient’s telehealth visit when simple interventions such as reminder phone calls and emails were implemented.

“Our centers experienced some challenges obtaining results in a timely manner for their telehealth visits. This project highlighted that simple interventions via phone call or email surpassed our initial expectations of 60% to 76% of spirometry results submitted,” Russian said.

The researchers plan to continue exploring communication strategies.

“At the time of this project, our team continued to communicate with families and address the barriers we encountered along the way,” Russian said. “Moving forward, we have set a new goal to receive spirometry results from at least 80% of our patients prior to their visit.”

Reference:

• Russian L, et al. J Cystic Fibrosis. 2021;doi:10.1016/S1569-1993(21)01690-8.