How Remote Patient Monitoring Improves Care For Chronic Diseases

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that 60% of adults in the United States of America live with a chronic disease, and four in every ten adults live with two. Chronic diseases are one of the major contributors to the USA’s $3.8 trillion annual healthcare expense and are also the leading cause of death and disability across the globe. 

However, the advent of remote patient monitoring programs and telemonitoring services has provided a convenient way of dealing with these challenges. Let us look at how remote patient monitoring can deliver effective and affordable outcomes. 

What is Remote Patient Monitoring? 

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) refers to a remote monitoring system consisting of data processing, data acquisition, and communication network systems. The data acquisition system is composed of wireless data transmission capability and various devices equipped with integrated sensors, making RPM the most suitable way of monitoring chronic patients. It can also enhance chronic disease management with the collection and appropriate analysis of additional patient-generated health data, including blood pressure levels in hypertension and blood glucose levels in diabetes.

Related: The Benefits Of Blood Pressure Monitors & Cuffs

It also keeps patients involved in their individual health plans, which contributes to patient behavior management. Telemonitoring services such as RPM have a broad scope and can deal with everyone, including chronically ill patients, premature children, accident victims, and the elderly.

How can remote patient monitoring improve care for chronic diseases?

Using remote patient monitoring in a chronic setting allows providers to monitor any changes in the medical condition of a patient, such as the blood glucose levels in diabetes remote patient monitoring, and allows them to intervene at the right moments to work out the most suitable strategies for disease management. 

Related: What Conditions Are Best Managed With Remote Patient Monitoring?

Moreover, since chronic patients receive prompt medical attention in a hospital-at-home model surrounded by their loved ones instead of a daunting hospital setting, telehealth works better in patient recovery than the traditional patient care techniques. Apart from creating a comfort zone for chronic patients, remote patient monitoring also comes in handy for logistic reasons when hospital space runs out, as seen commonly during the COVID 19 pandemic. 

Remote patient monitoring also provides service providers with various medical tools to deal with the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment prescription of chronic diseases not available otherwise. It also provides the additional benefit of immediate medical assistance to patients, which can even prove life-saving in chronic diseases. Instead of undergoing the lengthy process of scheduling an appointment and waiting for it, patients can now engage in real-time symptom analysis and monitoring within a small span of time. 

RPM can reduce readmissions, hospitalizations, and emergencies 

Statistics from UnitedHealth Group show that an emergency department visit costs 12 times more money than a physician’s office visit, which sheds light on the importance of reducing healthcare costs by keeping patients out of the emergency department. Chronic health conditions have a healthcare cost of more than $3 trillion per year in the United States alone. 

Thus, chronic disease management via telehealth services can either delay or entirely prevent money-eating events, including hospitalizations, readmissions, and emergency room visits. With RPM’s support to patients to maintain normal blood pressure or blood sugar levels, costly emergency situations can be eliminated and the risk of serious health conditions reduced. 

Telemonitoring services provide controlled personal healthcare

Remote patient monitoring proves increasingly effective in controlling personal health, as the next generation RPM solutions come equipped with user-friendly mobile-enabled applications. These applications allow patients to opt for a healthier lifestyle and diet via a holistic health analysis and promote adherence to medication and treatment plans. 

Related: A Complete Guide To Remote Therapeutic Monitoring

In contrast to the orthodox healthcare models, the increased levels of support, education, and feedback extended through this system develop a deep-rooted and continuous connection between healthcare providers and patients, which cannot be severed. The level of individualized and personalized support provided by rpm plays a significant role in reassuring and encouraging patients. Since patients receive information and holistic support in time, the need to physically visit a hospital becomes obsolete. 

RPM eliminates the need for physical visits to a medical specialist 

One of the foremost benefits of remote patient monitoring and care is the elimination of a need for physical hospital visits. Patients with chronic diseases face difficulty commuting to the hospital repeatedly, which can be eliminated by opting for remote patient monitoring services. Not only does RPM also reduce travel costs and time, but it also decreases exposure to other diseases in the hospital, especially COVID-19. Certain patients in rural areas have to travel overnight to consult with medical specialists in urban areas, which can be eliminated by bringing the specialist to them right in the comfort of their homes via laptops, phones, or any other digital devices.

Since patients do not need to pay for the accumulated costs of travel, parking, time off work, and additional related charges, home health can slash costs by nearly $7,000 and reduce the chances of readmissions by 9%. SmartClinix is well known for its expert-level telemedicine services, and you can avail of them right now by visiting their website and signing up.