The outdoor environment affects the health of people with COPD during winter. There are 100,000 COPD-related hospital admissions in England and the NHS spends £600 million annually looking after people with COPD.
Healthy Outlook® COPD Forecast Alert can drastically reduce hospital admissions, while providing people with COPD an improved quality of care. By being alerted in advance of impending high risk periods, people with COPD are reminded to take appropriate action to keep themselves well.
What is Healthy Outlook® COPD Forecast Alert?
Our Healthy Outlook® COPD Forecast Alert service helps improve the health and wellbeing of people with COPD.
Our unique service helps keep people with COPD well by:
- warning people when the outdoor environment is likely to put their health at risk;
- providing people with simple measures they can take to stay well.
Keeping people with COPD well helps reduce hospital admissions.
Healthy Outlook COPD Forecast Alert is a complete package
1. Education and training
COPD Health Forecasting literature
Our patient education resources
provide patients with detailed information to help them stay well.
We also provide health professionals with information on how to maximise
the benefit of the service for their patients.
Patient information
leaflet (PDF, 155 kb)
Training in Health Forecasting
We provide a comprehensive training course to help provide healthcare professionals with all the information they need to maximise the benefit of the service for them and their patients.
2. COPD Forecast
The forecast is the trigger that warns people with COPD when they are at elevated risk of illness during the winter.
Issued twice-weekly in winter by e-mail, the COPD Forecast details the risk over the coming week at either 'Normal' or 'Elevated' with an outlook for the following calendar week.
3. Direct patient contact
Our unique forecast-triggered direct patient contact system makes contacting people with COPD in response to a forecast of risk simple and effective.
The system, operated with Medixine, contacts all registered patients at a chosen time when the forecast risk rises to 'Elevated'.
Patients are invited to register to use the system by letter, which can be sent from their GP practice. Their details are added to the system via an easy-to-use web interface.
Developed in consultation with leading health professionals, the call begins with an introduction warning patients of the conditions expected and refers them to their packs for further advice. The system then asks whether:
- their symptoms have become worse than normal;
- they have enough medication for the next two weeks.
Practice staff are advised by e-mail the day before calls are made and alerted by e-mail once calls are complete. Patient responses are stored in a database accessible by practice staff for follow-up as required.
Who's involved?
Over 8,500 patients in over 160 practices have now signed up to use the Healthy Outlook® COPD Forecast Alert. Areas that commissioned the service last winter include Rhondda Cynon Taff Local Health Board, East Lothian, Moray and West Glasgow Community Health Partnerships, Worcestershire, Bradford, Cornwall and West Cheshire Primary Care Trusts. A number of new areas including Stoke, Torbay, and Devon, and our first customer in Northern Ireland, have signed up to use the service this winter.
How much does it cost?
Healthy Outlook COPD Forecast Alert costs just £18 per patient per winter (excludes set-up fees).
The service includes:
- winter COPD forecast, delivered by e-mail twice per week between October and the end of March;
- summer COPD forecast issued once per week by e-mail;
- automated telephone calls to patients, from October to the end of March, when forecast risk is 'Evelvated';
- one Patient Pack per COPD patient;
- one Clinicians' Guide per 500 patients;
- One place on a half-day training course for every 200 patients covered or a local session for 20 people, if more than 3,000 patients covered.
A weighted national average calculated with data from Cornwall, Worcester and Rhondda shows a 20.5% reduction in admission rates in practices that used the service.
Practices with more than half of their COPD patients registered on the system experienced a much bigger benefit, with the average admission rate reduction for these practices approximately 48%.
Find out how much your practice can save with the Healthy Outlook savings calculator.
To find out more about the Met Office's health forecasting services and expertise please contact our 24-hour Customer Centre or e-mail to health@metoffice.gov.uk.
