Integrated Respiratory Care for Patients on Prolonged Home mechanical Ventilation: Preliminary Results of the CAI_Vent Program

Introduction: Home Mechanical Ventilation (HMV) reduces mortality in chronic respiratory failure. The number of patients requiring prolonged HMV is increasing, but current home surveillance has not been sufficient to ensure consistent therapeutic efficacy. The CAI_Vent Program proposes effective monitoring and accessibility to experienced respiratory care. Objectives: Describe a one-year (2019) impact of the CAI_Vent program for prolonged HMV patients (> 12hday). Methods: Prolonged HMV patients were visited monthly at home and had access to a 24-hour telephone line. Monitoring was performed by data reading of the ventilator memory card. One-year data from 2019 on the number of Emergency Episodes (EE), hospital length of stay (LOS) and number of outpatient hospital consults (OHC) were recorded and compared with the same data from 2018 (time period without access to the CAI_Vent program). Results: 42 patients (17 women) were included with a mean age of 54.2 ± 19.57 years with the following diagnoses: COPD (n = 18), NMD (n = 13), OHS (n = 4), CWD (n = 4), ILD (n = 3), with an average ventilation use of 17.6 ± 4.5 hours / day. During the one-year analysis, 328 home visits and 130 telephone calls were recorded. Compared to 2018, in 2019 we observed a reduction of total hospital LOS (558 days versus 163 days), a reduction of EE (110 versus 47) and a reduction in the number of OHC (146 versus 91) Conclusion: An integrated program for prolonged HMV patients promotes better monitoring, early interventions and a reduction in hospital resources usage