Patient re-assessment

Evaluation of the effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation programs can be based on:

• Patient outcomes (i.e. what were the effects on the patient’s exercise capacity and quality of life?).
• Patient feedback (i.e. what did the patient think of the program?).

Evaluating the effectiveness of a pulmonary rehabilitation program depends on the assessment of patients before and after the program. Ideally, long-term assessments (e.g. 12 months after program completion) would also be conducted to help determine the long-term effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation programs and to provide long-term follow-up data.  The availability of resources may limit centres from conducting long-term assessments.

The extent of evaluation will depend on the availability of local resources.  The evaluation should reflect the content of each centre’s pulmonary rehabilitation program.