The capabilities of hospital-based telemedicine and remote patient monitoring have significantly revolutionized the healthcare industry in recent years. Hospitals are rapidly increasing their remote patient programs citing decreased expenses, routine patient visits and hospital admissions.
According to a report by Berg Insight, there are about 7 million patients under some form of remote monitoring, a 44 percent increase over 2015. The use of healthcare remote monitoring systems has enabled physicians to track patients’ vital signs in real time from locations away from the hospital.
Patients use a medical device to track their health progress and forward their responses regarding their illness to health care professionals for remote assessment. The telehealth technology has helped many including the elderly or those recovering from major injury/illness to benefit from the convenience of decreased frequent doctor visits, access to better health and increased quality of life right at the comfort of their homes. Remote monitoring, therefore, ensures full recovery of patients without the need for any readmissions and other avoidable hospital expenses.
Thanks to the telemedicine technology, St. Vincent Hospital has begun to see patients at two new kidney transplant telemedicine clinics located within rural communities in Indiana. “Patients will only have to travel to Indianapolis for their initial transplant surgery and immediate post-transplant follow-up care”, said the hospital’s Abdominal Transplant Program Executive Director Mary Ann Palumbi, RN. Patients can receive care closer to home without having to endure lengthy drives and hospital stays.
Managing chronic conditions like cardiac disease, respiratory issues, and diabetes has become much easier as patients can be continuously monitored and catered for in case of slight deviations from their anticipated recovery. Whether it’s presenting their vital signs, or a graph of trends over time or just a summary of their daily care outlook, remote patient monitoring programs allow a patient to get that daily information and support that can make all the difference in the world in regard to their health outcomes.
More hospitals should be encouraged to embrace remote patient monitoring as it has proved to have the power to change the way we provide and receive healthcare.