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This article presents the findings of a study on the integration of respiratory specialists into primary care settings to improve the care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The study found that integrating specialists led to improved adherence to treatment guidelines and had a positive impact on patients' quality of life, COPD exacerbations, and hospitalizations. However, the difference in outcomes between virtual integration and real integration was not clinically significant. The study suggests further research is needed to fully understand the effectiveness of integrating specialists into primary care. [Extracted from the article]

In 2013, 16 U.K. hospital trusts participated in a quality improvement programme involving implementation of a community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) care bundle. High-level data were collected on 14,962 patients admitted with CAP; bundle implementation increased from 1% in October 2012 to 20% by September 2013. Analysis of patient-level data on 2118 adults (median age 75.3 years) found that in the bundle-implementation group, significantly more patients received antibiotics within 4 h of admission (adjusted OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.08 to 2.14, p=0.016) and 30-day inpatient mortality was lower (8.8% vs. 13.6%; adjusted OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.95, p=0.03). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]