Manuel Angel Villanueva, Anabel Forte, Maria Teresa Rio, Manuel Valle, José Luis López-Campos Bodineau, CRISTOBAL ESTEBAN, Víctor Abraira, Ferran Barbé, Cristina Represas-Represas, DOLORES CORBACHO, RUTH AYERBE GARCIA, Tomás Ruiz Albi, Nisa Boukichou Abdelkader, Beatriz Abascal-Bolado, Inmaculada Alfageme, Bernardino Alcázar-Navarrete, Jesus R. Hernandez Hernandez, Piedad Ussetti, Jose Antonio Cascante, Sergi Pascual-Guardia, Virginia Leiro-Fernández, Virginia Pajares, Paola Lisseth Ordóñez Gómez, Pedro J Marcos, Adolfo Doménech del Río, ALBERTO FERNANDEZ-VILLAR, Alvar Agusti Garcia-Navarro, José Antonio Gullón, Juan José Soler-Cataluña, Lourdes Cañón-Barroso, Rubén Andújar-Espinosa, Luis Borderias, Marta Garcia Clemente, Borja G Cosio, Universitat de Barcelona, AUDIPOC Study Group, [Pozo-Rodríguez,F, Álvarez-Martínez,CJ, Castro-Acosta,A] Instituto de Investigación, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid Spain. [Pozo-Rodríguez,F, López-Campos,JL, Castro-Acosta,A, Cosío,BG, Agustí,A] Centre for Biomedical Research on Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES). Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid,Spain. [López-Campos,JL] Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBiS), Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Seville, Spain. [Agüero,J] Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, Spain. [Hueto,J] Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. [Hernández-Hernández,J] Hospital Nuestra Sra. de Sonsoles, Ávila, Spain. [Barrón,M] Complejo Hospitalario San Millán, Logroño, Spain. [Abraira,V] Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, IRYCIS, Madrid, Spain. Centre for Biomedical Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. [Forte,A] Department of Statistics and Operational Research, Universidad de Castellón, Castellón, Spain. [Sanchez Nieto,JM] Hospital Universitario Morales Meseguer, Murcia, Spain. [Lopez-Gabaldón,E] Hospital Virgen de la Salud, Toledo, Spain. [Cosío,BJ] Hospital Universitario Son Espases, Balearic Island, Spain. [Agustí,A] Instituto del Tórax, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain., and Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PI 08/90129, PI 90486, PI08/90578, PI 07/90503, PI 08/90251, PI 07/90516, PI 08/90529, PI 07/90309, PI 08/90457, PI 08/90129, PI 07/90721, PI 08/90550, PI08/90447, PI07/90403, PI 08/90486), Spanish Respiratory Society (SEPAR) and CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES).
Backgrounds: AUDIPOC is a nationwide clinical audit that describes the characteristics, interventions and outcomes of patients admitted to Spanish hospitals because of an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ECOPD), assessing the compliance of these parameters with current international guidelines. The present study describes hospital resources, hospital factors related to case recruitment variability, patients' characteristics, and adherence to guidelines. Methodology/Principal Findings: An organisational database was completed by all participant hospitals recording resources and organisation. Over an 8-week period 11,564 consecutive ECOPD admissions to 129 Spanish hospitals covering 70% of the Spanish population were prospectively identified. At hospital discharge, 5,178 patients (45% of eligible) were finally included, and thus constituted the audited population. Audited patients were reassessed 90 days after admission for survival and readmission rates. A wide variability was observed in relation to most variables, hospital adherence to guidelines, and readmissions and death. Median inpatient mortality was 5% (across-hospital range 0-35%). Among discharged patients, 37% required readmission (0-62%) and 6.5% died (0-35%). The overall mortality rate was 11.6% (0-50%). Hospital size and complexity and aspects related to hospital COPD awareness were significantly associated with case recruitment. Clinical management most often complied with diagnosis and treatment recommendations but rarely (, This work was supported by Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria (FIS), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (PI 08/90129, PI 90486, PI08/90578, PI 07/90503, PI 08/90251, PI 07/90516, PI 08/90529, PI 07/90309, PI 08/90457, PI 08/90129, PI 07/90721, PI 08/90550, PI08/90447, PI07/90403, PI 08/90486), Spanish Respiratory Society (SEPAR) and CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.