At a certain time in our lives, we will be faced with a struggle against age and disease. We can learn to manage our diseases, we can accept the inevitability of aging. But very few of us — or our family members — will be comfortable with the fact that disease or age means leaving our homes and entering a long-term care facility.
At Winona Health (WH), there are people working to implement a program that will allow patients to remain in their homes for much longer than they have in the past. The program, TeleHealth, would also help to lessen the number of visits those with chronic diseases must make to the emergency department and even to the doctor’s office.
Mary Miller-Hyland, Director of Senior Services, and Pam Slocum, Director of Home Care and Hospice, are leading the project, called TeleHealth, towards implementation. Their hope is to keep patients in their homes longer and to enlarge Winona Health’s already established community based care.
TeleHealth is the beginning of Winona Health’s answer to the question that currently is front and center in the entire nation: How can we reduce health care costs? Miller-Hyland says that at WH, part of the answer is to ask more questions: How can we use technology to support our patients more comfortably and cheaper at home? How can we help our patients to manage their diseases and avoid visits to the ER?
The WH plan will begin with two types of patients suffering from chronic disease — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure. Both diseases may make patients short of breath and easily taxed by such things as a trip to the doctor’s office to have their vital signs monitored. Home health visits can help such patients, but such visits can be costly.
via Winona Health’s TeleHealth could keep you in your home.
Philips Electronics recently released the final results of a survey conducted by Fazzi Associates of nearly 1,000 home care agencies in the United States. Results of the Philips National Study on the Future of Technology and Telehealth in Home Care show that nearly one third of large agencies are currently using a telehealth system and that industry use of telehealth is expected to double over the next two years, principally as a means of managing patients with chronic disease. In addition, over 88 percent of agencies report that telehealth services led to an increase in quality outcomes, as evidenced by a reduction in unplanned hospitalizations and ER visits, and over 71 percent report an improvement in patient satisfaction.
Co-sponsored by Philips, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), and Fazzi Associates, this first-of-its-kind study gathered insights about the use of home care technology from nearly 1,000 agencies across the U.S. The study represented all major segments of home care: large and small, rural and urban, free-standing and hospital-based, and for profit and not-for-profit.
“What makes this study so important is that it is the first representative sample study on technology and telehealth in home care that has ever been undertaken,” said Val Halamandaris, president and CEO of NAHC. “We now have a much clearer sense of how specific segments of home care are responding to and using these technologies. One finding that is particularly significant is that the utilization of telehealth by home care agencies also correlates directly with providing the highest quality of care.”
“Philips Home Healthcare Solutions was pleased to sponsor a study of this magnitude that could provide insights to advance the home care industry, as well as share these findings at no cost to the field,” said Mike Lemnitzer, senior director, Philips Telehealth Solutions. “We believe that home health agencies will be a critical part of the solution to the U.S. healthcare crisis and ensure a continuum of care from the hospital to the home.”
via Research News.