What Are the Benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring?

Remote patient monitoring gained traction during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as medical practitioners and patients were forced to resort to remote care due to restrictions around movement and concerns about exposure to the virus. Remote patient monitoring has since evolved from an adaptation during a crisis into an extremely useful long-term solution for providing patients with the care they need while reducing their need to physically meet with their healthcare providers. The pandemic may have subsided, but remote patient monitoring is here to stay, and it will play an increasingly important role in the healthcare sector for many years to come.

TapestryHealth, led by CEO Mark Hirschhorn, is a leading provider of remote patient monitoring and telemedicine services to post-acute care facilities. Mark Hirschhorn and his team have created a passive patient monitoring system that uses contactless radar and radio wave technology to continually monitor patients’ vital signs in real time, track trends, and alert care teams when intervention is required. They also are using AI to help care providers predict adverse health events and prevent hospitalizations. 

Read on to understand more about remote patient monitoring, and why it’s so critical in helping healthcare providers offer more responsive, quality care.

What is remote patient monitoring?

Remote patient monitoring uses technologies to transmit information electronically between patients and physicians. Remote monitoring allows healthcare providers to monitor patients—especially those with chronic conditions—outside of the traditional clinic setting. For example, a patient can be at home, wearing a monitoring device that transmits information to their doctor. Other remote patient monitoring solutions are designed for patients staying in inpatient facilities, but whose doctors cannot always be on-site.

Benefits of remote patient monitoring

Remote patient monitoring offers benefits to both patients and healthcare providers. It allows patients to have their vital signs and other key health parameters monitored without having to visiting their doctor, which alleviates the stress, time, and costs associated with traveling to a healthcare facility for an in-person visit. Rural patients or those who live far from specialty providers can particularly benefit from remote patient monitoring solutions. For providers, these technologies offer considerable efficiency gains, since they reduce the need for routine check-ins and free up staff time for patients in need of urgent care.

Remote patient monitoring is also proving to be extremely useful in healthcare facilities and long-term care homes. Clinicians cannot monitor each individual patient 24/7, but with a remote monitoring solution, they can continually monitor patients and immediately take action when alerted.  

Consumer trends

The Deloitte 2020 Survey of US Health Care Consumers, which sheds light on current consumer behavior and attitudes to healthcare, shows that consumers are becoming more interested in taking responsibility for their health, including the way they interact with their healthcare providers. Consumers are increasingly shying away from in-person visits and are opting for virtual visits using telehealth services instead—a trend that is likely to continue even though the pandemic has subsided from its peak. The survey found that 80% of consumers who have had a virtual visit would continue to opt for telehealth rather than an in-person visit, particularly younger patients under 40 years old, and patients who suffer from chronic disease.

It is estimated that by 2024, more than 30 million patients, or 11.2% of the U.S. population, will use remote monitoring tools—a 28.2% increase from the 23.4 million US patients making use of remote monitoring devices in 2020. Making use of remote monitoring devices not only allows patients to play an active role in managing their health, it can also help prevent patients from being re-hospitalized.

How remote patient monitoring is transforming patient care

Remote monitoring devices give physicians the ability to monitor patients 24/7 without having to be in the room, or even on the premises. Remote monitoring offers a convenient solution for home care, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, post-acute facilities, and rural healthcare facilities, among others.

With the latest remote technologies, even small nursing homes and rural healthcare facilities can provide quality care comparable to the highest in the industry. Remote technologies alert carers and clinicians to health problems, allowing them to take prompt action that can keep patients out of the hospital and save lives.

Remote monitoring solutions

Remote monitoring can include a range of technologies and solutions for providing timely care to patients in a wide range of settings. For example, TapestryHealth’s products use these technologies:

·        Contactless Radar and Radio Wave Technology: The company’s remote patient monitoring solution uses these technologies to monitor vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure of patients in real-time. While a slow increase in pulse or respiratory rate may go unnoticed during a nurse’s rounds, it will be detected by TapestryHealth’s Vitals Management Program, which will then alert staff to intervene. These alerts can be compared to a patient’s electronic health record (EHR) data to determine whether any further action or intervention is needed.

·        Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning: TapestryHealth’s AI technology offers a state-of-the-art solution that can help reduce clinical risk by accurately forecasting adverse health events and declines in patient health. The technology can provide insight by as much as 72 hours in advance, warning of potential complications or declines so that high-risk patients can be prioritized to avoid hospitalizations. When combined with advanced camera systems, AI technology can also forewarn clinicians of patients who are at risk of having a fall, and in this way can prevent falls and similar injuries that require hospitalization.

Remote patient monitoring technology has already come a long way since the pandemic exponentially increased interest in it among both patients and providers. Remote patient monitoring not only makes high-quality healthcare accessible to a broader range of patients; it is also cost-effective and improves patient outcomes.