What is Remote Patient Monitoring in Telehealth?

Posted in Telemedicine

In recent years, the scope of remote patient monitoring has significantly expanded, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Many patients and healthcare professionals are turning to RPM systems for convenient healthcare delivery. This innovative approach enables patients to actively manage their health conditions with the help of wearable devices and other medical sensors. Remote patient monitoring devices detect vital health metrics, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels, in real-time. This data collection helps healthcare providers intervene early in case of potential health deterioration.

Healthcare providers are increasingly adopting these technologies, and the government is actively supporting these initiatives; RPM will likely experience a significant 12.5% annual growth boom in the next decade. But what is remote patient monitoring in telehealth? Is the concept any different? Let’s find out.

What Is Remote Patient Monitoring Telehealth?

Remote patient monitoring, often abbreviated as RPM, is a type of telehealth in which healthcare providers monitor patients outside the traditional care setting without requiring live interaction. In healthcare, the telemedicine business uses information technology standards to collect patient data outside conventional healthcare settings. It’s designed to bridge the gaps between traditional healthcare settings.

The remote patient monitoring platform uses technology to provide comfortable care to patients and improve overall patient satisfaction by increasing engagement levels. It ensures that clinicians are equipped to manage patients’ health situations by delivering a consistent data stream of patient health data.

Additionally, telehealth remote patient monitoring allows clinicians and healthcare providers to diagnose medical conditions when they are still in the early stages. Once a condition requiring attention is detected, the collected information is transmitted to a healthcare provider for evaluation and appropriate actions. This approach aids healthcare professionals in providing timely advice and adjusting treatment plans.

How Does Remote Patient Monitoring Work?

Some of the common devices used in remote patient monitoring include:

• Weight scales
• Spirometers
• Oximeters
• Glucose meters
• Weight monitors

RPM systems do not need interactive audiovisual or virtual visits; simply, mobile medical equipment and technology can deliver health-related information to the healthcare practitioner.

One such scenario of remote monitoring telehealth is assisting medical professionals in keeping tabs on patients susceptible to losing their equilibrium. Doctors receive notifications in the case of a fall, allowing them to take the next appropriate steps.

Here are several widely known remote healthcare monitoring process facts:

1. The provider identifies the condition that needs remote monitoring and devises a program to facilitate the patients who need help. They can use remote patient monitoring devices to collect data such as blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar levels, etc.
2. A healthcare professional decides whether a patient qualifies for the program and would benefit from remote physiologic monitoring (RPM).
3. Remote patient monitoring devices must be electrically connected, which is often done through Bluetooth or cellular networking. Pulse oximeters and ECG devices are two other categories in which RPM use is growing.
4. Once the device is configured correctly, health information is recorded by the equipment and sent, often electronically.
5. Based on the analysis of this data, the practitioner provides the patient with recommendations and instructions for their health and wellness.

How Do You Implement Remote Patient Monitoring?

Implementing a remote patient monitoring (RPM) program involves the following steps:

Planning and Preparation

• Identification of Target Patients: Healthcare providers must address the needs that RPM will fix and cater to. Determine which patient populations would benefit most, such as those with chronic conditions, post-surgical recovery, or remote living.
• Select Appropriate Devices: Choose reliable, user-friendly devices that respond to patients’ needs and easily integrate with existing healthcare systems.
• Develop a Communication Plan: Establish clear communication channels to educate patients about remote patient monitoring, get informed consent, and address concerns or queries, if any.
• Establish Clinical Workflow: Make a proper structure of the clinical workflow that outlines data collection protocols, alert thresholds, and response procedures.
• Training of Healthcare Providers: Provide comprehensive training to healthcare providers on data interpretation, device usage, and patient interaction.

Implementation

Healthcare providers must decide whether to lease or buy RPM devices when implementing RPM programs. This decision depends on the practices, program size, goals, and budget. Leasing reduces upfront costs and innate flexibility while buying RPM devices will reduce overall costs.

• Enroll Patients: Actively recruit and enroll eligible patients after properly explaining the benefits and expectations of remote patient monitoring.
• Equip Patients with Devices: Distribute devices and provide clear instructions on their usage and maintenance.
• Connect Devices and Integrate Data: Establish secure data transmission protocols and integrate device data into electronic health records (EHRs) for hindrance-free monitoring.
• Monitor Patient Data and Intervene: Regularly review patient data, identify trends, and intervene when necessary.
• Billing, Coding, and Reimbursement: Implement compliant billing and coding practices to ensure reimbursement for remote patient monitoring services.

Maintenance and Optimization

• Feedback Collection: Regularly gather feedback from patients to identify areas for improvement.
• Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Monitor metrics like patient engagement, adherence to treatment plans, and healthcare utilization to assess the program’s effectiveness.

How to Start A Remote Patient Monitoring Program?

There are different factors to consider before beginning the remote patient monitoring program, such as:

• Segmentation: Determines the identification of patients and categorizes the patients based on care needs and diseases
• Marketing: The marketing tactics are designed according to the target audience and help patients learn about remote patient monitoring programs.
• Enrollment: A structure to recruit and onboard patients into the monitoring program. This may involve active enrollment by healthcare staff or self-sign-up by patients.
• Intervention: The healthcare providers need to create a strategy for implementing RPM and how the treatment plans will be offered.
• Support: Make support accessible to patients and healthcare providers for a smooth RPM experience.

Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth Services

Telehealth is a broader term encompassing multiple healthcare services delivered remotely, RPM being one of them.

Remote patient monitoring involves explicitly using technology to check on a patient’s health from a distance. This includes collecting and transmitting health data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels, to healthcare providers.

Telehealth is an umbrella term, and RPM is one of the tools within that umbrella. It can include various services, such as virtual consultations or telemedicine.

A telehealth monitoring system could include videoconferencing, IVR systems, and telephones. Telehealth apps for patients are comprised of different technologies for collecting and exchanging information. For the most part, remote patient monitoring and telehealth services are used interchangeably, but they are different.

Can HL7 Help With Remote Healthcare and Patient Monitoring?

Multiple advancements in the industry have made remote healthcare and patient monitoring possible. HL7 developers designed the HL7 Gateway server to use the HL7 communication protocols. For those who don’t know, HL7 is a well-defined communication standard for sharing healthcare information between various systems and devices.

HL7 supports telehealth and remote patient care by enabling telehealth platforms to integrate securely with existing healthcare systems. HL7 integration connects remote consultation platforms with EHRs, enabling virtual care. Patients can access healthcare from anywhere; doctors can review medical histories and prescribe treatments online. This digital bridge increases healthcare accessibility and reduces the need for physical visits, increasing patient satisfaction.

These servers can store treatment history, waveforms, analysis reports, ST recalls, vital data, and patient information. They also support different documentation systems at healthcare facilities.

Moreover, it can help diagnose by offering the ECG waveforms in the MFER format. It allows the integration of monitoring systems into different information systems. With seamless integration of the HL7 gateway server and medical systems, hospitals can improve the delivery of remote healthcare services.

Remote Patient Monitoring Benefits

There are many benefits of remote patient monitoring, from enhancing patient self-management to lowering care delivery costs; RPM does it all.

Here is a list of common advantages it offers: 

• Improved Patient Outcomes: Real-time patient data analysis helps healthcare providers make accurate treatment decisions.
• Globalized Patient Revenue Increase: RPM can expand healthcare services to a global audience, increasing patient access and generating additional revenue streams for healthcare providers.
• Encourages Self-Management: Patients can actively participate in their own care by monitoring vital signs and sharing data with healthcare providers.
• Better Adherence to Care Plan: Remote monitoring allows timely interventions and reminders to help patients adhere to their prescribed care plans.
• Boosts Patient-Doctor Relations: Regular communication and data sharing between patients and doctors strengthen the provider-patient relationship, increasing trust and satisfaction.
• Optimizing clinical staff Efficiency: Remote patient monitoring optimizes clinical staff efficiency by automating routine tasks and reducing the need for in-person visits.

What Are The Challenges Remote Patient Monitoring Face?

To understand what is remote patient monitoring in telehealth, exploring these five challenges of remote patient monitoring is essential:

1. Access To Real-Time Data

Real-time access to patient data is a critical aspect of remote patient monitoring, as it enables healthcare providers to monitor patient conditions in real time. This helps with timely interventions and better decision-making, especially in emergencies.

2. Data Reliability

Data accuracy holds immense significance in remote patient monitoring. Healthcare providers rely on the accuracy of transmitted data to make critical decisions about patient care. Any inaccuracies in the information can lead to misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, or even adverse health outcomes.

3. Integration of systems

Systems integration would not be as problematic if healthcare providers globally utilize the same systems on the same network.

4. The RPM Price

The expense of implementing RPM in the healthcare sector is also one of the most prominent issues. Charges per unit, license fees, software costs, and technical expertise are some examples that make remote patient monitoring expensive.

5. Device Cost

Hospitals may deploy remote patient monitoring devices independently rather than collecting data from an app or third-party device to lower security risk. Learn more about how to implement a patient portal and simplify integration.

According to an analysis done in the US in 2016, there is a variety of remote patient monitoring pricing associated with implementation. The “combined intervention cost” (the entire cost of the device, including service and monitoring) ranged from $275 to $7,963 per patient across 13 different trials.

Application Of Remote Patient Monitoring (Telehealth) Or Telemedicine?

Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring

Telehealth encompasses an extensive range of services and technologies that provide care and healthcare services. It refers to remote healthcare services such as provider training, telemedicine, non-clinical training, virtual monitoring, health education, prescription delivery, and communication.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine is one branch of telehealth that is used to practice medicine from a distance. With telemedicine, healthcare providers can examine, treat, and observe patients. It can be considered a virtual visit. In addition, telemedicine also includes specialist consultation, disease management, and medication management.

Telemedicine has different applications in other fields, such as cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, nursing, emergency care, psychiatry, orthopedics, and physical therapy.

Check out our guide on Telehealth implementation.

Remote Patient Monitoring Uses In Clinical Settings & Examples

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) helps patients manage their chronic or acute health conditions from the comfort of their homes. It enables the continuous collection and transmission of vital health data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Healthcare providers can remotely monitor patient progress, identify health issues, and treat accordingly. This approach reduces the risk of hospital readmissions and improves overall patient outcomes.

Some of the most famous examples of remote patient monitoring devices on the marketplace today are included in this list:

Pulse oximeters

A remotely operated pulse oximeter offers crucial details regarding a patient’s oxygen saturation levels for those with inhibited pulmonary functions.

Thermometers

A remote patient monitoring thermometer enables patients and healthcare professionals to instantly identify and respond to alarming data. Regular temperature checks reveal symptom patterns and signal whether anything is wrong.

Blood Pressure Monitors

With remote blood pressure monitors, patients can transfer vital data to their healthcare professionals in real time and get better patient scheduling workflow with their clinicians and hospitals. Monitoring blood pressure can aid in preventing heart attacks and strokes. Using one of these tools may help your doctor monitor your development, suggest lifestyle changes, and confidently and effectively alter your medication.

Blood Glucose Meters

Both patients and physicians should treat hypoglycemia seriously. For approximately 10% of Americans who have diabetes, continuous monitoring is essential due to the risks of low blood sugar, which range from impaired vision to death. By instantly synchronizing pertinent medical data to the appropriate applications, smart glucometers help diabetic patients and their doctors manage their condition effectively.

Stethoscope And ECG

This equipment lets patients comfortably check their cardiac activity regularly at home. This technology not only helps patients save money but also motivates them to monitor their health more frequently. The development of AI technology enables the rapid detection of anomalies. These gadgets could help prevent heart attacks in the most severe cases.

Spirometer

The spirometer may be the least prevalent of all the remote patient monitoring tools we’ve covered. It plays a crucial part in diagnosing lung disorders, including asthma and COPD, and precisely monitors the volume (i.e., amount) and/or flow (i.e., speed) of oxygen that a person may inhale or exhale.

Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth After COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased the adoption rates of remote patient monitoring (RPM) and telehealth solutions. These technologies, already gaining much attention, became essential tools for healthcare providers to deliver care remotely, minimizing the risk of infection.

RPM involves using digital technologies to monitor patients’ health from a distance, often utilizing wearable devices and sensors to collect real-time data.

On the other hand, telehealth is a broader term encompassing a range of virtual healthcare services, including telemedicine consultations, mental health counseling, and remote patient education. As we move forward, RPM and telehealth are all set to revolutionize healthcare, offering a more accessible, efficient, and patient-centric care delivery.

Securing Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring Ecosystem

Patient monitoring systems have been around for quite a long time but were deployed in controlled environments. RPM utilizes videoconferencing while leveraging the internet and cloud technologies.

NCCoE released a project to secure a telehealth remote patient monitoring ecosystem. This is actually a version of the NIST cybersecurity based on medical device standards. It is used to collaborate with public and industry partners to demonstrate how healthcare organizations can implement solutions for securing telehealth RPM systems.

Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring Coalition

The telehealth and remote patient monitoring coalition is the legislative agenda with over ninety stakeholders from different technology and healthcare sectors. It supports the expansion of remote patient monitoring and telehealth services. It focuses on the evidence bodies, including mobile medical device data, wireless health products, preventive services, and telehealth screening.

This is basically the masterpiece of AARC. It signs the joint coalition comments responding to the federal initiatives to support RPM functionalities and telehealth. In addition, it encourages CMS to explore health technologies.

Learn how to implement Telehealth in rural areas.

What Is CMS Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring?

CMS is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which focuses on remote patient monitoring. With CMS, telehealth remote patient monitoring involves gathering and analyzing physiologic data for patients, which is used to develop and manage the treatment plan.

How Much Do Clinical Remote Monitoring Systems Cost?

Generally, the installation and implementation of clinical remote monitoring systems will range from $85,000 to over $192,000. On the other hand, maintenance fees and ongoing licenses range from $7,000 to $161,000 on an annual basis. These are average costs and will vary with the additional devices, add-ons, integrations, and apps.

How To Use EHR For Remote Patient Monitoring Documentation Requirements?

EHR can collect medical data in care facilities and patients’ homes through self-reporting apps and medical devices. Remote patient monitoring devices and apps can be connected with EHRs to streamline workflow, provide access to medical records, and schedule and initiate medical treatments. However, it demands some documentation requirements, such as:

• Practitioner order for deploying the devices
• Conditions and illnesses of the patients
• Identification of devices
• Deliver the date of the device to the patients
• Date for providing training to the patients

Future Developments In Remote Patient Monitoring Technology

To understand remote patient monitoring, you need to understand why it is used and the difference it can make for the future patient care system.

Researchers believe that telehealth has room to develop and that remote monitoring will become an increasingly important aspect of healthcare. RPM use in managing chronic and acute diseases will increase as treatment continues to shift out of the hospital environment and into more home- and community-based settings.

One area that needs more study is understanding what remote patient monitoring includes and how other pros and cons of patient portals can be handled remotely and monitored utilizing remote medical equipment. The chance to further pinpoint more contexts in which RPM adoption would be advantageous is another potential future route for the technology.

Although several RPM initiatives exist in hospitals and health systems, there is room to expand RPM into less urgent settings like nursing homes or senior living facilities. Remote patient monitoring solutions assist patients with chronic diseases more if they are tested and studied in places other than the home, which also helps patients avoid the need for more urgent treatment.

However, patients may be unfamiliar with the technology, which can initially hinder their understanding of a remote patient monitoring system.

Why Choose Folio3 Digital Health To Develop Your Remote Patient Monitoring App?

Planning to get a remote patient monitoring app? Partner with Folio3 Digital Health to get the best solution tailored to your needs. We specialize in developing custom healthcare software that aligns perfectly with your unique business needs. Our team of experienced developers understands the complexities of RPM; therefore, we ensure the app is functional, user-friendly, and secure. We can provide software that prioritizes patient engagement, streamlines workflows, and safeguards sensitive health data. Whether you need a simple app to track patient visits or a comprehensive platform for remote monitoring, we have you covered.

Our team adheres to strict industry standards, such as HIPAA regulations, to ensure sensitive health information’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Each Folio3 Digital Health product uses the latest HL7 and FHIR interoperability standards for seamless integration.

Conclusion

Remote Patient Monitoring is a powerful tool that can potentially improve healthcare delivery. By using technology to monitor patients’ health conditions online, RPM helps patients actively manage their health while reducing the burden on healthcare providers.

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