As technology continues to advance, it is changing the face of healthcare. Today, telehealth and remote patient monitoring services allow patients and healthcare providers to connect outside the confines of a traditional office. These services allow regular check-ins to monitor vital signs without having to leave the home.
What Is Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)?
Telehealth allows patients to communicate with their healthcare providers without visiting the clinic for an appointment by use of video and phone calls.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is a telehealth service that is growing in popularity. This service implements modern technology to collect data on a patient’s health without the patient having to visit a medical facility. Combining software with several easy-to-use medical devices allows patients to measure their own vital signs from home, in between regular visits with their traditional healthcare provider. (In this context, a traditional healthcare provider can be the provider that prescribes remote monitoring and/or the patient’s primary healthcare provider.) The results are made available online for the patient’s traditional healthcare providers to review, per their protocols.
Monitoring and addressing these data points can help in management of chronic conditions including lung diseases (such as, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD)/pulmonary fibrosis) and cardiovascular diseases (such as, chronic heart failure (CHF) and hypertension and pulmonary hypertension).
At Remote Connected Care® (RCC), an affiliate of Lincare, RPM follows the model below.
Why use Remote Connected Care®?
There are various benefits to using the Remote Connected Care® model of RPM. For every RCC patient, an RCC healthcare provider will supervise the patient’s vital sign monitoring and will serve as an adjunct to the patient’s traditional healthcare providers. We understand how busy traditional healthcare providers have become and thus at RCC, we will monitor patient’s vital signs and alert both the patient, and the patient’s traditional healthcare provider, as identified by the patient, when there is a concerning trend or significantly abnormal values in vital signs. The data being gathered by RCC is also available by request to the patient’s traditional healthcare provider online. The regular monitoring of vital signs can assist in detecting potential health problems and allow for updates to treatment earlier in a disease exacerbation. Our RCC staff also conducts at least monthly telehealth check-ins with the patient. These check-ins allow review of vitals with the patient and, if necessary, allow RCC health care providers to suggest modifications in the patient’s health care regimen. This closer monitoring may lead to a reduction in severity of exacerbations and may reduce the need for emergent visits to the hospital. RCC is working to transform health care from reactive to proactive.
Remote Connected Care® uses several RPM devices for treatment, including:
- Blood Pressure Cuff: This device allows patients to gather their daily blood pressure data and transfers the data via Bluetooth technology to the hub device. Trending blood pressure may help reduce cardiovascular disease exacerbations.
- Pulse Oximeter: This device monitors oxygen saturation levels and heart rate /pulse and transfers the data via Bluetooth technology to the hub device. Trending oxygen and pulse may help detect exacerbations of pulmonary and cardiac issues.
- Weight Scale: This device measures weight and transfers the data via Bluetooth technology to the hub device. Trending weight may help detect exacerbations of heart failure.
- Hub Device: All our RPM devices send their readings into the hub device via Bluetooth. The hub device then transmits the patient’s data so that both the RCC team and healthcare providers can view and track the results.
Stay connected with Remote Connected Care®
We pride ourselves on providing the best experience possible. With Remote Connected Care® check-ins, patients have access to the attentive, accurate care they deserve.
