Client Background
Ruby Heart Center, a renowned cardiology practice in Alaska, United States, is known for providing high-quality cardiovascular services to patients. The practice serves a large patient population suffering from heart failure(HF). Although the client’s practice was known for its exceptional cardiovascular care, the client had identified that around 40% of patients are getting readmitted to the hospital due to heart failure (HF), which puts an additional burden on care providers to manage more patients and deliver individualized, effective care to patients.
Business challenges
While managing patients with cardiovascular diseases, the client has faced some challenges, which insisted on the client's use of Medarch Inc.'s eCareMD software.
1. High hospital readmission rates
The client has experienced high hospital readmission rates, which indicate gaps in post-discharge care. The readmission rate has resulted in a lack of patient satisfaction and confidence in the practice.
2. Difficulties in attending to each patient
Because of the limited staff resources for managing patients with cardiovascular diseases resulted in a lack of attention toward the abnormal signs of a patient’s heart failure, resulted in delayed interventions from providers.
3. Increased healthcare costs
The frequent readmissions and emergency visits put a financial burden on the care providers and patients, leading to increased healthcare costs for both.
4. Limited communication and engagement
Traditional in-person visits offer patients limited communication and education facilities; thus, care providers and patients have limited ongoing communication opportunities. It results in disruption of the patient’s treatment adherence.
Solution
To reduce the patient’s hospital readmission rates and enable early detection of potential health issues, the client has approached medarch Inc. for eCareMD RPM software that facilitates remote patient monitoring services.
Our team of business analysts and subject matter experts took multiple interactions and demonstrations with clients and understood all the business challenges and essential requirements. After getting approval from the client, our team has implemented the eCareMD software into the client’s practice.
Solution Highlights
The eCareMD software uses cutting-edge technologies to deliver high-quality of care to patients and ensures better health outcomes.Here are some of the features that resolved the client’s challenges.
1. Real-time tracking of patient health vitals
The eCareMD software is integrated with multiple devices that continuously monitor patient health vitals remotely. It includes devices like weight scales, blood pressure monitors, and pulse oximeters.
These devices continuously track the fluctuations in patient health vitals and transfer the real-time health data to the care provider’s software. That resulted in the early detection of potential health issues and intervention by the care provider that reduced patient hospital readmission and emergency visits.
2. Alerts and Notifications
The software generates an alert for each vital exceeding the threshold levels as per the configuration. These alerts are notified to care providers using SMS, push notifications, and emails. Care providers take necessary action over the patient profile upon receiving an alert notification.It helped in attending to each patient and thus obtaining expected health outcomes.
3. Customized care plan
The eCareMD software is integrated with remote monitoring devices that transfer vital health data to the care provider’s eCareMD software in real-time. It helped care providers track each patient's vital readings like blood pressure, weight, pulse oximeter, and fluctuations. That resulted in a more preventive, individualized care approach as the care provider can make interventions and customize the care plan.
4. Secure communication and send educational material facilities
To increase patient engagement and send educational material, the eCareMD software has an inbuilt functionality that enables care providers to send educational material to patients. Also, the software enabled care providers to make instant calls to patients and schedule recurring calls for clinical reviews, appointments, etc. These functionalities helped care providers communicate with patients at regular intervals. It helped in increasing patient engagement and treatment adherence.
Value Delivered
1. Reduction in hospital readmission rates by 40%
The eCare MD software has enabled care providers to access real-time patient health vital data and intervene if any vitals exceed threshold levels. This increased preventive care helped identify potential health issues that reduced health complications and readmission rates for patients.
2. Improved personalized care
With a real-time live vital dashboard, care providers can manage and access patient health vitals individually and customize treatment plans as required. That helped care providers provide more personalized care to patients.
3. Reduction in healthcare costs
For each vital that goes beyond threshold levels, an alert has been generated because care providers have made interventions and reduced the patient's health complications. It resulted in lower hospital readmission rates, thereby reducing healthcare costs.
4. Increased patient engagement and treatment adherence
Features like sending educational material and calling through the platform enabled continuous communication between care providers and patients. It increased patient engagment and treatment adherence.