Why Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)?

Why Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)?

Caring for patients with chronic diseases has become more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, as agencies, nursing staff and patients are seeking to avoid virus exposure by minimizing human contact.  Now more than ever, remote patient monitoring holds the promise to leverage digital technologies to collect health data from home care patients and electronically transmit information securely to home health care providers.  But lacking reimbursement for costly Bluetooth- enabled home monitoring devices deters many agencies.

 

The Solution:  Device free RPM by TouchPoint Care (TPC)

Device free RPM uses the patient’s phone or tablet to transmit health data to the home care agency.  This eliminates the need for costly Bluetooth -ended scales, blood pressure monitors, and the like, and avoids the IT support and patient training of deployment.

 

Instead, patients answer a series of questions about their vital signs and key health measures, and share these answers using their tablet, cell phone or landline with the home health agency.  TouchPointCare’s platform stores real-time patient data in the dashboard and triggers when patient data is out of normal range for follow-up by nursing staff.  Using this platform, the home health agency can greatly scale the number of patients in its care and at the same time, deploy nursing staff more efficiently by freeing up more time for nurses to provide in-home care for higher risk patients.  This achieves better care with less cost, and keeps patients engaged in their own care.

 

How TouchPointCare Works

TPC offers low cost and flexible approach to gather signs and symptoms while delivering encouragement and education to patients.  The agency uses the turnkey TPC program to create custom question scripts specific to the diagnosis, plus creating follow-up questions based on patients’ responses. The script is created within minutes and includes options for triggering alerts for immediate notification to nursing staff for follow-up.  Based on patient preferences, the script is automatically deployed via IVR call, text message, email, or live phone call.

 

Example

The agency is caring for a recently discharged patient following complications from heart failure as seen in figure 1.  The patient has a history of heart conditions and is overweight.  Using the hospital discharge instructions, the agency creates a call script that reaches out so the patient daily with questions surrounding her weight, swelling in abdomen or ankles and if she’s taking her medications as in Figure 2.

 

Figure 1:                   Figure 2:

 

The agency receives automated daily data from the patient and immediate alerts should any of the data trigger action.  Additionally the agency can use the TPC platform to send education and health tips to encourage the patient’s engagement.

 

If the agency decides to pursue Bluetooth-enabled devices such as a scale, TPC works seamlessly to integrate any brand of equipment.

 

For more information on how to use the low cost deviceless RPM from TPC, set up a time for your demo.