Cincinnati Children’s launched its Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) program in February 2017 with the mission to improve the outcomes and experience for patients with high-risk and chronic conditions outside the hospital walls.
Patients and families self-report health information to their care team. Vital stats including blood pressure, weight, temperature, oxygen levels and pulse are collected via Bluetooth-enabled devices and transmitted to care teams via an app on parents’ phone or tablet.
Condition-specific questionnaires are collected on a scheduled basis to get feedback on a patient’s current health. The data are reviewed by a team of registered nurses who partner with subspecialist providers to address any concerns. This way we can identify concerns sooner than waiting for a follow-up appointment. We also can reassure a family who just left the hospital that their child is doing well at home.
Remote Patient Monitoring currently has programs in the following areas:
- Cardiology
- Adult congenital heart disease
- Cardiomyopathy
- Ventricular assist device (VAD) patients
- Dialysis
- Gastroenterology
- Liver transplant
- Patients on tube nutrition
- Hospital Medicine
- Neonatology
- Patients on tube nutrition
- Patients on oxygen
- Patients requiring additional weight monitoring
- Oncology
- Patients with nutritional risk
The benefits of RPM include:
- Increased ability for family to remain at home for things that previously required in-person visits such as weight checks
- Increased family engagement in plan of care, and better adherence to treatment plans (for example, taking medications as directed)
- Confidence for families learning new care for conditions, knowing the care they have to provide at home will be supported by a team of specialty trained nurses
- Reduced need for emergency room visits and inpatient stays by allowing connection to care team from home and from identification of clinical changes early