| Abstrakt | | Background. Chronic diseases represent a major and increasing public health problem. In Slovenia, we are pressured to reduce the number of hospital beds and to shorten the hospital stay, which is in contrast with the growing need for medical care due to acute exacerbations of chronic disease. Because of huge workload, real patient needs are not readily recognized during hospitalization resulting in additional and unnecessary contacts with health care services shortly after discharge. Different approaches have been developed for the effective management of chronic disease burden, which include prevention and early disease detection, introduction of new health care provider qualifications and settings, disease management programs and integrated care models. The latter emphasize the role of transitional care and discharge coordinator, who represents a link in management of patients with additional needs for care in their home environment. Additionally, discharge coordinator provides coordination of care and better information flow to the patient, relatives and other health and social care workers. Aim. Our aim is to develop methodologically appropriate process for evaluation of effectiveness of discharge coordinator intervention in management of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which should include public health and clinical perspective. In order to evaluate the role of discharge coordinator in management of patients with COPD at University Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases Golnik we set the following two objectives: to prepare the appropriate research design (study protocol) and to acssess the process of the research course. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters)
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