Programs
Telehealth: A Tool for Decreasing Hospitalizations
The Telehealth Program is an important tool for avoiding hospitalizations for some patients. Here are a few questions and answers that you may have about Telehealth.
What is Telehealth?
VNA of Boston uses two types of telehealth. The first type of telehealth uses telephone consultation. We are currently telephone calling some of our high risk for re-hospitalization patients during the first week they are discharged from the hospital to VNAB services to assist with the transition to home.
The second type of Telehealth uses telemonitoring equipment which is installed in a patient’s home. The patient is instructed to check their weight, blood pressure, pulse rate, and oximetry readings daily. The patient is also asked ten disease specific questions concerning their symptoms.
What kind of monitors do we use?
The monitors that we currently use are called Turtles and are from a company called Vitel Care. We have found the monitors to be very user friendly.
How does Telehealth work?
The telehealth information obtained by the patient is sent to VNAB by the patient’s telephone line. All telehealth information is reviewed by the telehealth staff daily for values outside of pre-determined alert levels. If indicated, the patient is called by the telehealth staff to further assess the situation. Consequently, the patient may need to repeat testing and depending on the results a home visit and/or a call to the patient’s physician may be indicated.
How does Telehealth keep a patient out of the hospital?
It has been found that for certain patients early detection of problems enables care providers to act early to prevent hospitalization.
What patients benefit the most from telehealth monitoring?
Patients with congestive heart failure have been shown to benefit from daily telehealth monitoring since quick action for early changes in vital signs and symptoms can keep a patient out of the hospital. Patients on telehealth will also be learning how to manage their disease by getting into the habit of checking their weight and knowing how to respond to changes in their symptoms.
Why is the Telehealth program important to the VNA of Boston?
The VNA of Boston is committed to keeping patients out of the hospital and in their own homes by teaching the patient to manage their own disease. Telehealth monitoring is one of the tools that we can use to meet our goals and improve patient outcomes.
Call (781) 535-5491 for more information or to refer a patient for telehealth.
« Back to Our Services
