In a prior post we introduced you to the history of at-home health technology commonly referred to as “Tele-medicine systems” as well as one form of technology, the “Vital Signs Monitoring Service”. Services such as these are especially useful for heart patient users. “It's like an electronic house call. The patient gets attention. The provider gets information. And the Caregiver and patient can cooperatively maintain control of that information -- that's essential." said Ethan Johnson Director of eCaregiver Customer Care.

An important issue in the use of patient-operated technologies is diligence and accuracy. Patients with congestive heart failure must diligently monitor their weight. These patients, who may also be obese, are less inclined to weigh themselves regularly, much less report weight gains. Even minor weight gains may signal retention of fluids, which must be addressed promptly. It is not unusual for CHF patients to wait until they feel very sick before scheduling an office visit. At this point, it may be too late to avoid hospitalization.

Similarly, training in the use of these technologies is critical to effective monitoring. Usability of home health care technologies is paramount. If patients are not both willing and able to use it effectively, the results can be worse than no monitoring at all, since clinician, patient, or both may be misled into believing that signs are normal when they are not.

The benefits of effective monitoring go beyond the blood pressure and pulse data that’s transmitted. The time stamp on recorded data also provides the clinician insight into other potential health issues. For example, if the data shows the patient took his blood pressure at 2:00 AM, the clinician can follow up on potential sleep problems.

Interactive Healthcare Services at eCaregiver

In addition to reducing unnecessary hospital admissions, tele-medicine systems facilitate prompt and appropriate response by the clinician or caregiver. eCaregiver solutions includes thorough training and tracking software to monitor daily patient measurements, store and retrieve historical data, and generate reports. Patient measurements which fall outside preset limits can be flagged for immediate follow-up by the health care provider. Additionally, eCaregiver services include a 24-hr emergency monitoring center who can respond as appropriate.

“By engaging patients as active participants in their own care and providing physicians and nurse case managers with daily access to timely, accurate, and relevant patient data, eCaregiver Services strives to improve the management of heart failure disease. Patients receive a set of portable, easy-to-use devices that measure and transmit vital signs from their home to their healthcare provider's computer. The devices include a weight scale, a blood pressure unit, glucose level meter, oxygenation sensor, exhalation sensor, and a unit to transmit the data using the patient's phone line. In a user study, patients using the system had a hospital readmission rate of 0.13 visits a year, compared with an average of 1.5 for patients not using the service." states Drew Zabrocki, eCaregiver Brand Manager.

Aging in place is the best way to enjoy ones’ remaining days and families want to offer the highest quality of care often seeking professional care giver services to aid in providing the best for their family members. Tele-medicine solutions are effective tools for families and professional caregivers alike.  If you’re fortunate enough to have family with the time and resources to provide at-home care the vitals reporting or personal help (medical alert) buttons can ease the work load and provide added peace-of-mind. As a professional caregiver the medication management and vitals reporting solutions allow you to effectively care for more clients by automatically managing less technical aspects of your day-to-day activities.  With the ever increasing demand for caregivers and the limited amount of trained and certified associates professional caregiver organizations can turn to tele-medicine solutions as a way to improve customer care and profitability while meeting increasing market demands.

In future posts we’ll discuss how to manage medical costs with tele-medicine solutions and the future of at-home medical technology.