Benefits of Telemedicine for Remote Patient Monitoring
Integrating RPM with a telemedicine platform closes the loop from monitoring to timely assessment and intervention. Protected health information (PHI) from mobile health technologies links patients in a variety of settings such as the home, skilled nursing facilities, or other ambulatory care settings. Through the digital data collected — including vital signs, blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, and body weight — providers can intervene and act on the information received via a virtual visit as part of the care management protocol.
This integrated approach to care management allows hospitals and health systems to realize the benefits of population health management programs. Patients can better manage their chronic diseases as data is analyzed in real-time rather waiting for the next scheduled visit to a provider, or the more common outcome, an ambulance ride to a nearby hospital. With this approach seniors or disabled individuals can live in their homes longer or receive more timely and convenient assessment if in a nursing facility. For providers, RPM is helping to reduce the number of ambulance transports, ED visits, and hospital readmissions to better contain healthcare costs.
The key benefits of using telemedicine for remote patient monitoring include:
Improved Clinical Efficiency and Quality Care
Treatment Adherence
With an increasing number of medications or treatment plans previously dispensed/delivered in the hospital or clinic now administered at home, patients have the monitoring support they need should any issues arise. RPM, combined with the ability to intervene through virtual visits, means enhanced treatment adherence and more timely interventions for better outcomes.
Access to Qualified Care
For patients who live in remote areas, congested urban areas, or who have trouble traveling, RPM enables them to have their health monitored by skilled providers and other specialists without requiring an in-person visit. For patients in long-term care facilities, RPM data can enable timely assessment and treatment plan adjustments.
Convenience
Digital health devices can now gather data in the cloud and produce insightful reports and track trends that are shared with providers as part of a virtual visit, eliminating the need to come to the clinic or hospital.
Collaborative Care
Difficult-to-manage and expensive patient populations often require collaborative care across medical specialties or intensive management by highly specialized teams. Virtual visits and RPM can be a complement to visiting nurse and other care programs to provide higher levels of insight for managing the most fragile patients, such as those with advanced medical needs.
Enhanced Efficiency and Reduced Costs
Reduced Urgent Care/Emergency Room Visits
Urgent care and emergency room visits for patients with advanced disease are expensive for medical centers and patients, as well as being inconvenient for many patients. A substantial portion of these visits can be avoided as a result of RPM in combination with virtual visits at considerably lower costs and with greater patient convenience and satisfaction.
Easier Collaboration
Telemedicine makes it easy for caregivers to interact directly with other specialists, and RPM is able to enhance quality of care and determine the right services needed, which may not require an office visit. Pharmacy consultations, dietary, and mental health services can easily be delivered remotely, providing more complete patient support.
Innovation
Providers know that improved health and wellness programs can produce long-term benefits for the total cost of care for patients. RPM in combination with virtual visits can realize the promise of population health programs and value-based care.
Reimbursement
Payment for virtual care services has improved considerably in the last five years. As of 2018, forty-eight states offer some form of reimbursement for video visits, although every state is different and specific conditions apply and must be accounted for. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia now have parity laws in place that require private insurers to reimburse for video visits, but again, each case is unique. Reimbursement for virtual visits along with recently approved payment by Medicare for RPM improves the financial prognosis for those seniors requiring more intensive monitoring.
The GlobalDoc iQ Telehealth Solution for Remote Patient Monitoring
GlobalDoc iQ’s Telehealth platform is a complete virtual clinic that allows for interoperable RPM platforms to be utilized to monitor patients with advanced conditions such as diabetes, COPD or congestive heart failure. Our industry-leading digital exam room provides all the tools needed to engage patients in one click and provide continuous monitoring of patient data. With advanced capabilities such as multi-party visits and file transfers, the GlobalDoc iQ Telehealth platform allows for real-time, on-demand interventions with patients to deliver convenient and timely care when it matters most.
Key features of the GlobalDoc iQ Telehealth platform for RPM include:
Medical devices and sensors can generate data to be analyzed by the RPM software with notifications of change of patient status sent to providers in order to keep them stable. With GlobalDoc iQ Telehealth, telemedicine moves from mere consultations to examinations.
Screen sharing enables clinicians to present/review X-rays, CT scans and MRI images from PACS systems, diagnostic reports, and education materials in real-time to patients or other health care providers as part of a live encounter.
Family-based accounts allow a single member of the family to function as a chief medical officer and manage the accounts of loved elderly family members tied to one user name and log-in, yet with separate PHIs for each family member.
Multi-participant sessions allow up to six persons to be engaged in a single session. A son or daughter of an aging parent can join a multi-participant encounter to provide informed consent. Additional providers can also be invited to the encounter should a second opinion be needed and or a case requires escalation.
Powerful rules engine for intelligent workflow, with customized rules that can control patient registration and ensure patients are routed to the appropriate provider.
Enterprise-level dynamic scheduling system, enabling appointment scheduling by providers, administrative staff, or directly by patients themselves; true on-demand encounters can be facilitated via a unified patient queue versus the antiquated, one-dimensional booking-based approach used by others.
High-definition video for virtual exams that can support multi-participant and/or clinician-to-clinician sessions, enabling timely care and decision-making. This high-quality video experience can also improve intimacy with the patient to enhance the clinical encounter.
Market-leading compliance adherence and security layers, including HIPAA, HITECH, GDPR and COPPA-compliant software, combined with complete logging of all transactions, with data available for extract to meet audit requirements.
