![\"Liam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0023383c-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLiam Bradley says the ward has changed his life<\/p>\n
A health care initiative focused on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) management in Donegal has resulted in a 20% drop in COPD admissions and a 50% drop in readmissions at Letterkenny University Hospital.<\/p>\n
The HSE has said that, historically, Letterkenny University Hospital saw 38% of emergency department admissions related to respiratory conditions, with 28.7% of COPD patients readmitted within 30 days – the highest in Ireland.<\/p>\n
The HSE launched a Community and Acute Respiratory Excellence (CARE) Virtual Ward (CVW) in Donegal consisting of a 20-bedded remote care model in November 2023.<\/p>\n
An independent evaluation of the programme published on EHealth Ireland has said CARE Virtual Ward “has redefined respiratory care in Donegal”.<\/p>\n
Patients are provided with a patient app and a wearable Bluetooth enabled monitoring device to track respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and heart rate.<\/p>\n
They are cared for at home while their data is reviewed daily via a traffic-light triage system. Notifications within the app prompt patients to complete daily questionnaires and tasks assigned by a clinical team.<\/p>\n
If a task remains incomplete, an automated follow-up is initiated to the clinical team to follow-up with patients to ensure they are completed.<\/p>\n
This approach enables early intervention when signs of deterioration appear and provides a step-down option after hospital discharge, reducing readmissions.<\/p>\n
Patients also receive multimedia education, personalised care plans, and rescue medication packs, with referrals accepted from GPs, Respiratory Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) and the COPD Outreach Team.<\/p>\n
The independent evaluation has detailed reductions in hospital use, improved patient outcomes and \u20ac4.2 million in cost saving.<\/p>\n
\nLiam Bradley says the ward has changed his life<\/p>\n
Liam Bradley, a patient who has been engaging with the CARE Virtual Ward said it has “changed” his life.<\/p>\n
“Honestly it’s hard to put into words what it\u2019s done for me, it\u2019s just changed my life. I found it very comforting that you had your IPAD and that there was somebody, somewhere looking at it,” he added.<\/p>\n
HSE Integrated Healthcare Area Manager in Donegal, Dermot Monaghan, said the program supports people in communities while easing pressure on acute hospitals.<\/p>\n
Mr Monaghan said the integrated approach ensures that care is in place to allow people to live with a chronic disease and “in most cases increase their ability to live their lives to the full which in the very recent past, would not have been possible”.<\/p>\n
Dr Abdullah Mohammed Bukhari who is the Clinical Lead for the CARE Virtual Ward, Donegal believes the model that could transform how the management of chronic conditions.<\/p>\n
“This evaluation shows that integrated, digitally enabled care is both practical and effective. It is a model that could transform how we manage chronic conditions in Ireland”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A health care initiative focused on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) management in Donegal has resulted in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-46895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}