Remote patient monitoring allows physicians and other caregivers to best care regarding sensitive treatment conditions. This service is designed for patients with conditions that need extra care, like heart failure and diabetes patients who need frequent doctor visits.
Remote patient monitoring can be complex, with the question if the patient can get the required care when monitored remotely. Here are some viable strategies to ensure you succeed in remote patient monitoring.
Plan Extensively Before You Begin
Organizations should plan for remote patient monitoring by dividing them into two vital groups. The first group is the clinical group, which describes the problems that need to be monitored and solved with remote monitoring. This group will also decide how the monitoring will be done.
The other key group is the IT team. This is a crucial team in implementing the technical part of the services. The IT team should train the clinicians and the patients on how to use the wearables. From the onset, collaboration between the clinical team and the IT stakeholders is vital.
Set Clear Goals
Having clearly defined goals for your remote patient monitoring is vital from the start. With defined goals, you will know who the program is for and understand the changes you need to make to help your patients.
Knowing the type of patients, you want to care for is an excellent start. For example, you can decide only to take care of diabetic patients.
Focus On Simplicity
To ensure the success of the RPM, it is important first to keep away from complex remote patient monitoring systems. Take time to build the success of the service step by step. One of the simplest forms of remote patient monitoring is a phone call; clinicians often overlook it for complex systems.
Simple RPM systems are available for certain diseases. However, if your patient has a heart condition, there is a need to monitor directly. Your patient will need, for example, to keep their weight in check; if it increases, there is bound to be a problem.
If your patient has diabetes, there is also the need to monitor the patient’s blood level often. Monitoring your patient regularly will inform the decision of where you need to change the medication or increase the dose.
Choose Devices that Meet Your Needs
While offering the remote patient monitoring service, you will have a lot of devices to choose from. Some health organizations manage the whole monitoring process in-house, while others have a third-party provider to meet their needs.
All organizations will choose the approach that meets their needs and patients to succeed. You will also need to clearly understand where you need extra assistance in the decision-making process.
For example, some devices may break down or stop working, and you cannot leave the burden of repair on your patients. You will need to decide who takes responsibility and when and come up with the most cost-effective way to deal with any issues.
Deploy A Care Management Software
We recommend you deploy care management software to help manage the program betters. This software will cool features and tools designed to efficiently support your remote patient monitoring program and other medical care programs.
Prioritize Patient Engagement
Studies have shown that higher patient engagement and activation are associated with better patient outcomes. While the study only focused on diabetic patients, there have been success stories on different avenues to prove why patient engagement is essential.
Ensure that your patient engagement remains high and that all your medical devices are easy to use. Most patients needing remote patient monitoring are elderly, limiting their learning curve in tech.
It is also essential to ensure that the technology is working seamlessly. This will ensure that you can easily see the results and any improvement the patients will make. It is also vital to ensure that your patients have a say in the kind of treatment they receive from your program. It will help the patients when they take an active role in their care process.
