Postacute care has recently become an acute concern of health systems.  Coordination of postacute care will require gathering data from the patients and the various postacute care providers.  The TouchPointCare system provides the flexibility to utilize multiple data collection methodologies by all of the providers.  Below are just a few studies that validate the various data collection methodologies.  

A study published in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Telemedicine and E-Health, “The Use of the Internet to Remotely Monitor Patients with Heart Failure” by Maric, Kaan, Araki, Ignaszewski, and Lear of Simon Frasier University and the University of British Columbia, has shown the efficacy of collecting self-reported data from heart failure patients without the use of electronic monitoring equipment.  The patients logged onto an Internet web site and entered their answers to a series of questions.  According to the study, “The Web site generated an alert if the participant’s” response exceeded a threshold.  Nurses then responded to those patients who triggered alerts. 

The study concludes that, “The Web site was able to effectively alert the monitoring nurses regarding participant symptoms and supported participant self-management.” Through the self-reporting the study found that patients improved their self-management skills and improved their quality of life.  Another interesting finding was that “this study demonstrates that following up with only those patients who experience changes in signs and symptoms does not result in adverse outcomes.”  In other words, implement low cost data collection from all patients and respond to just those who trigger alerts. 

A meta-analysis by the Studer Group of “29 journal articles published between 1981 and 2004” that “were reviewed to aggregate the research findings on the validity of hospital staff making discharge phone calls to patients” concluded that postacute phone calls “provide an invaluable opportunity to evaluate patient education, identify trends that may require improvement in practice, improve patient quality of care, determine patient’s compliance with discharge instructions, and assess overall impressions of hospital performance.” 

Another study from 2001, “Reducing the Cost of Frequent Hospital Admissions for Congestive Heart Failure: A Randomized Trial of a Home Telecare Intervention” by Jerant, Azari, and Nesbitt concluded that “Substantial reductions in hospital readmissions, emergency visits, and cost of care for patients with CHF might be achieved by widespread deployment of distance technologies to provide posthospitalization monitoring” 

Furthermore, a May 22 WSJ article, “The Power of a Gentle Nudge” by Kevin Helliker supports the premise that proactively reaching out to people to get them to change behavior is effective.  Whether it is encouraging the sedentary to get more exercise or encouraging heart failure patients to pay attention to swelling in their feet, ankles or legs, changing behavior requires consistency and repetition.