Using clinical pathways to assess interventions to prevent COPD readmissions.

Two recent articles and the accompanying editorial in CHEST (May 2015) 1 3 correctly point out that 30-day readmissions aft er COPD are usually not for COPD exacerbations and that the eff ect of currently identifi ed interventions may not vary from control groups. Risk predictors for 30-day readmissions aft er COPD may depend on the principal discharge diagnosis of the readmission, since the majority of readmissions are not for COPD exacerbations.