Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115560

Mary Morrissey-Ross, MSN, RN, Nursing, Nursing & Home Care, 180 School Rd., Wilton, CT 06897, 203-259-7470, bross18998@aol.com and Marlene Overton, RN, Masters in Nursing, Western Connecticut State University, 180 School Rd., Wilton, CT CT.

Interactive telehealth in homecare: Empowering patients, decreasing hospitalizations and costs Since May 2003, a medium sized homecare agency in Connecticut has employed an interactive telehealth visiting program to augment the nursing care of its primary nurses. Faced with the need to be judicious in the use of visits within a prospective payment system, an increasingly acutely ill patient population with a multitude of health problems and a shortage of nurses, the agency secured a grant to provide nursing visits through telehealth monitors in patient homes. Recognizing the importance of the nurse-patient interaction in helping to engage patients in positive health behaviors, the agency chose an interactive telehealth model, where patient and nurse can see each other and communicate via a telephone connection. Selection criteria for patients to receive monitors were developed based upon the goal of reducing hospitalizations. The telehealth machines monitor blood pressure, pulse, glucose, oxygen levels, weight as well as lung sounds via an electronic stethescope. Thus, patients with diagnoses of Heart Failure, Diabetes and/or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease are routinely identified as those who would benefit from increased monitoring provided by the machine. With a total of more than fifty patients benefiting thus far, results have included decreased costs in visits (an average of $800 per episode), a reduction in hospitalizations and a high level of patient satisfaction.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to articulate three ways in which to gain acceptance of the telehealth monitors among clinicians, patients and families.
• Participants will be able to identify typical homecare patients where a decrease in hospitalizations can be achieved through the use of an interactive telehealth program.
• Participants will be able to list at least three ways in which a telehealth nursing visit can be structured to increase patient/family participation in care and early recognition of signs and symptoms of significant changes in health status.

Keywords: Telehealth, Home Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.