Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hospitalized patients have been shown to make several errors in using metered-dose inhalers (MDIs), which can lead to poor medication delivery.
METHODS: This study was designed to look at the potential benefit of a respiratory therapist (RT) giving instruction on the use of MDIs to hospitalized patients with obstructive lung disease. A baseline group of 58 patients was observed by a physician while performing 2 actuations of their MDI and the number of errors they committed, based on the National Institutes of Health's recommended 8 steps for proper MDI use, was recorded. After a program of MDI instruction (which included encouragement to use a spacer) by an RT was performed, a second group of hospitalized patients was again observed by a physician to determine if their error rate was reduced.
RESULTS: The baseline error rate was 6.72 (out of 15 possible) errors per patient, and improved to 2.43 errors per patient after RT-provided instruction (p < 0.001). This improvement was still significant after controlling for an increased use of spacers in the post-instruction group of patients (27.6% and 91.7% spacer use before and after education).
CONCLUSIONS: Instruction of hospitalized patients with obstructive lung disease by an RT improves their correct use of MDIs and increases their use of spacers while in the hospital.
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Bernard J Roth MD MC USA, Madigan Army Medical Center, Attention: MCHJ-EDME, Tacoma WA 98431. E-mail: bernard.roth{at}nw.amedd.army.mil.
CPT Won S Song MD MC USA presented a version of this report at the Army chapter meeting of the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians, held November 12–15, 2003, in San Antonio, Texas.
- Copyright © 2005 by Daedalus Enterprises Inc.
