St. Louis, MO July 11, 2007 – COPD evaluation MedicalTemplate updated
The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) evaluation MedicalTemplate has been updated. This MedicalTemplate is a fillable Adobe PDF with fillable text fields and working checkboxes designed to streamline clinical documentation for the evaluation of patients with known or suspected COPD. The COPD evaluation template is appropriate for use in the ambulatory as well as inpatient settings by any healthcare provider.
The symptoms of COPD are often unrecognized in the earlier stages, and patients rarely seek medical attention until approximately 30-50% of their lung function has been destroyed and the dyspnea has begun to interfere with normal daily activities. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), by 2000 estimates, approximately 10 million people reported being diagnosed by a physician as having COPD. Results from the National Health and Nutrition Surveys I and III (NHANES I, III), demonstrate that approximately 24 million Americans have evidence of mild or moderate obstruction based on spirometry, indicating that COPD, though relatively simple to diagnose, is a dramatically under-recognized health problem. Early diagnosis and treatment of COPD is important in limiting progression of this disease by assisting patients with smoking cessation, improving quality of life for countless individuals, and reducing the overall healthcare cost burden.
The National Center for Health Statistics reports COPD to be the 4th leading cause of death in the Unites States, causing 124,000 deaths per year. The major risk factor for developing, and dying from, COPD is tobacco smoking. COPD has historically been much more prevalent in men, however, the number of women smokers has increased steadily since the 1940’s, and since 2000 more women die from COPD than men.
Healthcare costs related to COPD represent a serious financial burden. Each year, over 1 million hospital admissions are due to COPD related illness, costing $32 billion dollars in 2002 alone. Due to the large numbers of Americans with COPD and the heath care costs associated with the treatment of COPD, this chronic lung disease is understandably the focus of many quality improvement initiatives and pay for performance programs.
The COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate can assist healthcare providers in thoroughly evaluating patients with COPD (or suspected COPD) and meet the quality standards for many quality improvement initiatives, including the new Medicare Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). Documentation prompters for five PQRI quality measures are included in this medical note template. The COPD evaluation MedicalTemplate also includes the Clinical Performance Measures for COPD developed by the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.
The COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate contains prompters for eliciting COPD symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, sputum production, recent need for antibiotics or steroids, and hospitalizations for COPD related illness. Disease severity evaluation prompters based on symptoms and lung function testing are also included. Prompters for smoking, drug abuse and alcohol abuse history are standard with MedicalTemplates, however, they have great significance in patients with COPD. The COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate can be used to document an initial history and physical exam, a consult note, or a medical progress note.
A sample of the COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate can be downloaded from www.e-medtools.com/SAMPLE_COPD_Evaluation_2_Page.pdf
MedicalTemplates are created with Adobe PDF technology from Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE), and have editable text fields and working checkboxes. Information can be typed in or pasted from other applications to fill out the template. Completed MedicalTemplates can be saved to a computer, USB drive, CD, DVD, or other storage device at a fraction of the cost of an electronic medical record.
MedicalTemplates can be searched, reviewed, printed, or modified whenever needed without internet access or a connection to a remote computer. Data from a MedicalTemplate can be cut and pasted into another application.
The COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate costs $50 for an individual license and is sold by RegNow, the software industry’s premier e-commerce provider. The COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate is available for immediate electronic delivery. RegNow accepts credit cards, checks, wire transfers, PayPal, and purchase orders. Volume discounts are available.
The COPD evaluation MedicalTemplate can be purchased from RegNow
www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=2062-14
More information regarding the COPD Evaluation MedicalTemplate can be found at www.e-medtools.com/copdeval2page.html
Contact Information
Robert Robinson
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About the Press Release
The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) evaluation MedicalTemplate has been updated. This MedicalTemplate is a fillable Adobe PDF with fillable text fields and working checkboxes.
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