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3 Must-Haves For a Remote Monitoring Program in Your Facility

Remote monitoring has taken off in response to the COVID pandemic. Learn what's essential to building an effective program in your facility.

Despite healthcare’s notorious aversion to new technology and new modes of operation, there has been a widespread adoption of innovative new technology as facilities become forced to adapt to an infection-conscious world and clientele. Among these new systems is the remote monitoring program.

What is Remote Monitoring in Healthcare?

Generally, these programs refer to methods of care that involve gathering patient data from outside of the care facility. By gathering information on things like vitals, symptoms, physical activity, and more from patients as they live their day-to-day, nurses and physicians can gain a much more thorough understanding of a few things:

- What predispositions a patient has to certain health issues.

- How a patient is responding to treatment

- How well a patient adhering to their treatment plan

Information on these variables is vital in a time where patient data is invaluable and remote care is even more so. With that in mind, what’s needed to take a new remote monitoring program off the ground?

1.) Patient Portal Messaging

Several programs have seen resounding success in utilizing their patient portals to maintain communication with their patients. With these portals, patients who are tested positive for COVID-19 can remain in constant contact and continually report symptoms, giving providers the information they need to adapt care on the fly and triage more effectively.

Furthermore, having this easy mode of communication can also provide a psychological benefit for patients. Being in contact with a professional who can calm irrational fears can help ground patients and make them more receptive to treatment plans.

2.) Care Kits

If you plan on implementing a remote patient monitoring program, plan to have a care kit you can administer to patients that are being sent home to self-care and manage symptoms. What’s included in these packages can vary based on the specific conditions you plan on targeting with your remote monitoring program.

Using COVID-19 as an example, a care package designed to help patients both manage and report symptoms can include:

- An oximeter for measuring oxygen saturation

- A thermometer for tracking fevers

- Medication like Acetaminophen for managing fevers

The key here is that each part of the care kit is curated with the symptoms of the targeted illness/condition in mind. A remote monitoring program with heart failure in mind, for example, can include a scale and a blood pressure cuff. Regardless of the contents of the kit, patients can use the included tools to track symptoms and report to their physician.

3.) Video Call Optimized Workstations

There are plenty of times where a patient may forget to input their symptoms for the day or miss a message. In these cases, it’s imperative that a nurse or physician be able to get in contact with a patient through phone or video call.

When testing a remote patient monitoring program back in 2003, the Center for Connected Health in Boston commented that video calls were a “powerful stimulus” for patients to comply with symptom monitoring routines.

Investing in workstations that are optimized to make these calls is a strong step towards an effective monitoring infrastructure. Consider more portable devices such as medical tablet computers or a computer on wheels setup that are more lightweight and maneuverable. This will allow your team to more easily take calls in private rooms and areas where their patients will be more comfortable sharing personal information, symptoms, and emotional concerns.

A Remote Monitoring Program Requires a Flexible Approach

Creating a remote monitoring program, especially one that’s effective, will require your team to keep an ear to the ground on common conditions and their treatments. From there, it’s only a matter of finding the right hardware. For more information on the type of hardware needed to start a remote monitoring program , contact an expert from Cybernet’s team today.

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