GLOUCESTER — In April alone, Leatrice Croswell was hospitalized three times for severe shortness of breath linked to his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

By then, Croswell, a 76-year-old Middlesex County resident and retired tugboat captain, had already lost count of how many days he’s spent at Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester since his diagnosis about four years ago.

Yet thanks to a new hospital-based educational and advocacy initiative for COPD patients, Croswell has been managing well at home for more than a month. The program helped him secure a low-cost inhaler and taught him how to use it twice daily: two precise puffs in the morning, another two at night.

“Maybe I won’t have to go back there anytime soon,” he said. “I sure hope not. That sure would be a

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