Telemedicine and e-Health — St. Vincent’s Homecare Remote Monitoring Project

Monitor — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:51:49 +0000

St. Vincent’s Homecare implemented a remote monitoring project in which researchers studied whether the telehome health patients exhibit enhanced clinical outcomes and patient perceptions of telehome healthcare. Fifty congestive heart failure patients n = 50 participated in this program. Data collection included pre and post Outcome and Assessment Information Set items, 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, and data from patient charts were used to capture demographic information. In addition, interviews were conducted in order to assess overall perceptions and attitudes. Results indicate significant changes occurring among respondents in three important aspects that impact their quality of life, namely, physical, behavioral, and emotional improvements. Specifically, statistical significance was documented at the 0.05 level regarding improvement for home telehealth patients in shortness of breath, management of oral medications, ability to engage in moderate activities, amount of energy, swelling in legs/ankles, need to sit/lie down during day, fatigue, need for hospitalization, side effects from treatment, and worry. Additionally, patients found the service easy to use and perceived the care they received via telehealth to be as good as regular in-person care.

via Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. – Telemedicine and e-Health – 152:148.

Technology drives advances in home health monitoring (WTN News)

Monitor — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:42:51 +0000

Madison, Wis. – The nation’s ability to rein in future healthcare costs, which hospital executives fear could reach unsustainable levels within a decade, may depend in part on emerging technologies that are taking patient engagement to a higher level, especially in the home.

Home health monitoring and telemedicine for post-discharge care are nothing new, particularly with cardiovascular care, but it is taking on added dimension as new technology permits.

William Petasnick, CEO of Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, said the next generation of home health monitoring will take consumers beyond routine pacemaker monitoring and into total remote monitoring. The business value of this new direction goes beyond the desire to reduce hospitalization, and therefore cost, and extends to better resource utilization in an era of nursing and other workforce shortages, the need to better manage chronic diseases, and the desire for better patient service and outcomes.

The hospitals of today, Petasnick noted, are trying to become more highly intensive in terms of their care environments. “With less-acute patients, the more we can keep them out of an institutional setting, that’s better for care and it’s a more effective use of resources,” he said.

In this look at home health monitoring, WTN spoke to representatives of hospital, clinic, and medical device manufacturers to assess the clinical and business value attached to this evolving concept, and to identify some of the barriers to wider adoption.

via Technology drives advances in home health monitoring (WTN News).

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Telemedicine and e-Health — St. Vincent’s Homecare Remote Monitoring Project

Technology drives advances in home health monitoring (WTN News)