In part one of this blog post, we covered some of the first steps that any practice needs to take before implementing a solution for remote patient monitoring (RPM) as part of your overall telehealth offerings. Those steps include:
- Identifying whether you have a patient population that could benefit from RPM
- Outlining workflows to ensure patient needs are addressed without adding more administrative burden to your staff
- Figuring out which clinical outcomes you can most effectively achieve through RPM
Once the basics are established and you are ready to implement your remote patient monitoring solution there are a few additional factors that every practice should be aware of and assess.
Technical Capabilities of Staff & Patients
Since remote patient monitoring services use technology, it’s important that both your staff and your patients are comfortable with the tools or have the support needed from a third party. Understanding the technical capabilities of your staff and patient population will help you determine whether a self-service or full-service model is a better fit for your organization. For example, your patients may need to learn how to use at-home blood pressure cuffs, weight scales, or blood glucose monitors.
Without third party support, your staff will also need to understand how to receive and interpret data so they can effectively address concerns as they come up in an RPM program. Therefore, it’s imperative to do a thorough risk analysis, documenting where information will reside and how it will be transmitted, collected, and stored to ensure HIPAA compliance and patient privacy.
Benefit Analysis
Using RPM with high-risk and high-need patients can provide you with ongoing information about their health and provide better access for patients without the need for in-person appointments. That offers more time during your day for new patients or acute patient care, allowing you to have more frequent, higher quality in-office visits. In addition, these services have been proven to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits, hospitalization, and hospital readmissions for patients managing chronic disease. For those participating in value-based care initiatives, improvement on these key metrics can be a huge step in the right direction.
Finding a partner who can provide affordable and seamless RPM services can reduce your overhead and start-up costs and get you to the benefits of the program faster.
Integrate RPM with Other Clinical Tools
Finally, it’s important that you evaluate population health partners to ensure the one you select can seamlessly integrate with services and tools your practice is already using. Any patient monitoring must be integrated with your EHR or EMR so data automatically becomes part of patients’ medical records without the need for manual data entry or duplicate work by your staff. It’s also important to integrate them so you will be notified immediately through existing channels about any potential health threats.
If you are using a chronic care management (CCM) program, RPM can be a valuable addition by further engaging your patients in their disease management and overall health. Finding a solution that can seamlessly work with your CCM program provides your team with real-time, actionable information for better patient care.
Wellbox, an AdvancedMD partner, offers a turnkey solution that can provide practices with the tools they need to get started with remote patient monitoring and chronic care management. To learn more about how working with Wellbox could benefit your practice, contact us today.
