Hcs/490 Week 3 Demographic Paper

Hcs/490 Week 3 Demographic Paper

Impact of COPD on the Public Health Care System in Texas
Donna Kelly Alcorn
HCS/490 Health Care Consumer-Trends and Marketing
University of Phoenix
February 25, 2013
Professor: Michael Veal

Impact of COPD on the Public Health Care System in Texas
“Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease describes a group of lung conditions (diseases) that make it difficult to empty air out of the lungs” (American Thoracic Society, 2013). This condition is not chronic asthma but it can be hard to distinguish the two. “COPD kills more women than men every year and is not always caused from smoking cigarettes” (COPD Foundation, 2012). There are many other factors that lead to COPD, such as; dust, chemicals, and air pollution just to name a few. In this paper we will examine the demographics and impact COPD has on the public health care system in Texas. We will discover data and describe the general impact and the changes these demographics may have on the health care market.
COPD in Texas
“COPD is responsible for one death every four minutes in the United States” (Dubin, Do, JD, FCLM & Winn, MD, 2010). Along with the millions of individuals who have been diagnosed with COPD in America there are that many more who have never been diagnosed. By 2023 COPD could be the third leading cause of death in the country. There is not a specific physician to treat COPD and will usually be diagnosed by a primary care physician (PCP), they are also the ones who will treat the disease. “Regrettably, recent studies suggest that, in general, PCP’s are doing a poor job with regard to treating and diagnosis of COPD, leaving up to half of the cases undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed), exhibiting very poor rates of and quality of testing with spirometry and failing to treat the disease aggressively once identified (Dubin, Do, JD, FCLM & Winn, MD, 2010). In 50 counties in East Texas has shown consistent evidence of higher rates of hospital admissions for patients with COPD, which is higher than the...

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