Last Updated | July 19, 2023
Whether you are a healthcare provider or administrator of a healthcare institute, remote patient monitoring systems ease the job if your developer knows how to develop a healthcare app. In recent years, the scope of remote patient monitoring has significantly expanded; especially in the wake of the Covid-19 virus, more and more patients are healthcare professionals are turning to remote patient monitoring as the next level of the healthcare system. Remote patient monitoring is likely to experience 12.5% annual growth in the next decade. The healthcare providers have already implemented the equipment for remote monitoring, and these practices are being supported by governments and authorities. Still, it’s a new niche, and some people are still unaware of the concept. With this article, we are sharing everything about remote patient monitoring and telehealth (or are they the same? we shall find out!).
What Is Remote Patient Monitoring Telehealth?
Remote patient monitoring is often abbreviated as RPM and is the process of providing healthcare. In Healthcare, the telemedicine business is provided through the utilization of information technology standards for collecting patient data from outside of conventional healthcare settings. It’s designed to bridge the gaps between conventional healthcare settings.
The RPM platform tends to leverage technology that makes sure patients are comfortable with health management. It improved the quality of care by increasing engagement levels. It ensures that clinicians are equipped to manage the health situations of the patients. Also, it delivers a consistent data stream that offers clear patient health data.
That being said, clinicians and healthcare providers will be able to diagnose the issues with patients when they are still in the early stages. It allows the healthcare providers to measure the healthcare provision. To illustrate, it allows healthcare providers to understand what’s happening with the patients on a daily basis.
How Do You Implement Remote Patient Monitoring?
Identification Of Need & Formation Of Team
Every system should be implemented after identifying the needs. The healthcare providers need to address what needs will be fixed and catered to with RPM. Identification of needs will help prioritize the available resources since the programs are designed to cater to such specific needs. In addition, the purpose of RPM must be outlined since it adds to the stability.
Once the purpose and needs are identified, the healthcare providers need to form the team because it ensures the success standards of the RPM. Also, the team and its size depend on the needs.
Setting The Goal
The healthcare providers must outline the goals. The goals help determine what’s successful for the remote patient monitoring system. The needs will actually narrow down the goals of the organizations. Also, when you are setting the goals, you must identify the health outcomes, patient experience, financial gains, and satisfaction.
Leasing Or Buying The RPM Devices
When it comes down to the implementation of RPM programs, healthcare providers need to decide if they have to lease the RPM devices or buy them. This decision depends on the practices, along with program size, goals, and budget. To illustrate, leasing will reduce upfront costs and innate flexibility. On the contrary, buying RPM devices will reduce overall costs.
Identification & Recruitment Of Eligible Patients
This is an essential point to consider because rolling our RPM to all patients is not the right choice. For this purpose, it’s best to test the program on a small patient subset, evaluate their results, and optimize the program. For the identification of eligible patients, it’s suggested to categorize the patients into different segments.
The patients can be segmented on the basis of short-term care, long-term care, and their diseases. As far as recruitment is concerned, one can opt for an in-person recruitment system or outreach campaigns.
Training the Clinicians & PatientsÂ
The RPM programs need patient engagement, which means preparing the patients is essential. While you are training the patients, you must focus on their expectations, answer their concerns, and focus on the program goals. On the contrary, while training the clinicians, you must focus on the utilization of devices and provider sufficient training materials for educating the clinicians.
Delivering the RPM
Once the patients and clinicians are trained and engaged, you can launch the RPM program. At the program outset, you must track the baseline metrics for comparing the results at regular intervals; it helps determine the improvement areas and success standards.
What Is Remote Patient Monitoring Used For?
Remote patient monitoring tends to use digital technology, which collects medical and health data from the patients. It can transmit information to healthcare providers for recommendation and assessment purposes. It will empower the organization to track the healthcare data for every patient, which reduces the chances of readmissions.
Remote patient monitoring can gather health data, such as blood sugar, weight, blood pressure, vital signs, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and electrocardiograms. The data can be transferred to healthcare professionals, which leads to remote patient monitoring. It’s safe to say that monitoring systems can help keep patients healthy.
Remote patient monitoring can be used for reducing the percentage of readmissions, stay times in hospitals, and hospitalization numbers. That being said, it will eventually help improve the quality of care while reducing costs.
How to Start A Remote Patient Monitoring Program?
The remote patient monitoring program is developed by the developers and IT teams. It can be started with the help of the IT department, but there are different factors to consider before starting the remote patient monitoring program, such as;
- Segmentation – it determines the identification of patients and categorizes the patients based on care needs and diseases
- Marketing – it will identify how the patients will get to know about the remote patient monitoring program. The marketing tactics are designed according to the target audience
- Enrollment – it will determine how the patients will be enrolled in the monitoring program. For instance, it includes staff enrolling the patients and patients enrolling them on their own
- Intervention – the healthcare providers need to create a strategy for the implementation of RPM and how the treatment plans will be offered
- Support – a clear system must be designed to offer patient and customer support. Healthcare providers must have dedicated clinician teams for offering support
Remote Patient Monitoring & Telehealth Services
RPM is the utilization of technology for facilitating patient and clinician interaction. On the contrary, telehealth services are the broad terms that determine the entire industry, technologies, and methodologies that enable different types of healthcare. That being said, RPM is the telehealth delivery system, while telehealth refers to remote patient monitoring, it also refers to other things.
To illustrate, telehealth technology could be videoconferencing, IVR systems, and telephones. It’s safe to say that telehealth app for patients comprise different technologies for collecting and exchanging information. For the most part, remote patient monitoring and telehealth services are used interchangeably, but they are different, as we have already mentioned.
Can HL7 Help With Remote Healthcare & Patient Monitoring?
When it comes down to remote healthcare and patient monitoring, there are multiple advancements in the industry. In using HL7, remote healthcare and patient monitoring are possible because the HL7 developers have designed the HL7 Gateway server, intended 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.
With the help of the HL7 gateway server, healthcare providers can enter the patient ID on the monitor and get access to patient information. In addition, it can transfer the data to the EMR and other systems. These servers can store the treatment history, waveforms, analysis reports, and ST recalls, along with vital data and patient information. These servers can support different documentation systems at healthcare facilities.
Secondly, it can help with diagnosis by offering the ECG waveforms in the MFER format. It allows the integration of monitoring systems into different information systems. All in all, with seamless integration of the HL7 gateway server and medical systems, hospitals can improve the delivery of remote healthcare services. On top of everything, it can help healthcare providers offer remote follow-ups of treatments.
How Is Remote Patient Monitoring Different From Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring Telehealth COVID?
COVID-19 has impacted our lives massively and has made the healthcare industry pretty weak. This pandemic has hurt the entire globe, but it resulted in increased utilization of remote patient monitoring and telehealth services. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that telehealth and remote patient monitoring systems are here to stay.
With the Internet of Things devices, telehealth solutions and remote patient monitoring have increased. But telehealth has improved expectations. Telehealth is basically a broader term, and remote patient monitoring is one part of it.
Application Of Remote Patient Monitoring (Telehealth) Or Telemedicine?
Telehealth (remote patient monitoring)
Telehealth has an extensive range of services and technologies which provide care and healthcare services. It refers to remote healthcare services, such as provider training, telemedicine, non-clinical training, remote monitoring, health education, prescription delivery, and communication.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is one branch of telehealth and is used for practicing medicine from a distance. With telemedicine, healthcare providers can examine, treat, and observe patients. It can be considered a virtual visit. In addition, it includes specialist consultation, disease management, and management of medication.
There are different applications of telemedicine in other fields, such as cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, nursing, emergency care, psychiatry, orthopedics, and physical therapy.
Check out our guide on Telehealth implementation.
Securing Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring Ecosystem
Patient monitoring systems have been around for quite a long time but were being deployed in controlled environments. However, remote patient monitoring is usually deployed at the patient’s homes. These systems utilize videoconferencing while leveraging the internet and cloud technologies. This system can be used for treating different conditions.
Securing a telehealth remote patient monitoring ecosystem is the project released by NCCoE. This is actually a version of the NIST cybersecurity practice guide SP 1800-30. It is based on medical device standards and is used for collaborating with the public and industry partners. It actually demonstrates how healthcare organizations can implement the solutions for securing telehealth RPM systems.
Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring Coalition
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, inclusive of mobile medical device data, wireless health products, preventive services, and telehealth screening.
This is basically the masterpiece of AARC and signs the joint coalition comments for responding to the federal initiatives for supporting the 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 and focuses on remote patient monitoring. With CMS, the telehealth remote patient monitoring involves the gathering and analysis of physiologic data for patients that is used for developing and managing the treatment plan. CMS has outlined the RPM through CPT codes, such as 99453, 99091, 99458, 99457, and 99454.
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, there are maintenance fees and ongoing licenses, which range from $7,000 to $161,000 on an annual basis. These are average costs and will variate with the additional devices, add-ons, integrations, and apps.
How To Use EHR For Remote Patient Monitoring Documentation Requirements?
EHR can be used for collecting medical data in care facilities as well as patients’ homes through self-reporting apps and medical devices. The remote patient monitoring devices and apps can be connected with EHRs for streamlining the workflow, medical record access, scheduling, and initiation of 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
What Is A Disadvantage Of Remote Patient Monitoring?
Truth be told, there are no disadvantages to remote patient monitoring per se, but there are some challenges. First of all, the RPM is not accessible to everyone since it needs a reliable connection which is challenging for rural healthcare facilities and small-scale healthcare services. In addition, some patients and healthcare providers are still skeptical about the entire idea.
Secondly, remote patient monitoring demands additional software solutions, apps, and devices. Lastly, there are doubts when it comes down to reliability.
Learn about the stakeholders involved in successful Telehealth implementation.
FAQs
What is the purpose of Folio3 remote patient monitoring software companies?
Folio3 remote patient monitoring software companies can design telemedicine and telehealth solutions that allow the healthcare providers to track patients.
Are Folio3 remote patient monitoring solutions reliable?
Yes, the remote patient monitoring solutions are reliable and can cater to different situations, such as remote environments, inpatient environments, and outpatient environments.
What is the Folio3 remote patient monitoring system?
Folio3 remote patient monitoring system is designed to collect the medical data and health data of the patients and transmit them to healthcare facilities for treatment.
What is Folio3 remote patient monitoring software pricing?
The pricing of Folio3 remote patient monitoring software depends on the number of patients, apps, integrations, and overall budget of the healthcare facilities.
What are the benefits of remote patient monitoring for doctors?
With remote patient monitoring, doctors will have convenient access to patients’ data which improves the care quality. Also, it reduces the chances of burnout while increasing efficiency.
At this point, we do want to add access to patients’ data, and higher efficiency can be further improved by optimizing the healthcare UX/UI because they increase intuitiveness.
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