Starting your own private practice as a nurse practitioner

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) for Nurse Practitioners 

Remote patient monitoring is one of the major advancements of the 21st century: it is a healthcare delivery method that applies innovative advancements and improvements in information technology to healthcare delivery. 

Remote patient monitoring shifts healthcare to places where people live and work, effectively bridging the gap between the traditional physical healthcare settings and places where people actually want to be every day. 

Remote patient monitoring is not just beneficial for patients and medical health professionals, but also offers multiple advantages to nurse practitioners. Through RPM, nurse practitioners can evaluate a patient’s health between visits and intervene as per the requirement to provide healthcare coaching and prevent undesirable outcomes. 

Remote monitoring allows NPs to also monitor the health of their patients throughout the day using connected devices. Constant monitoring allows them to intervene when most necessary as a preventive measure against the occurrence of adverse conditions. 

RPM also allows nurse practitioners to always remain on the lookout for potential crises and push themselves outside the routine healthcare rotations and readings. They may also contact patients whenever they need to evaluate their condition, determine the root causes of their condition, and refer the matter to a specialist when necessary.

Through remote patient monitoring, NPs can do much more than act as a reaction force to individual readings. They perform the duties of educators, coaches, and patient advocates. They are also responsible for conducting wellness calls with patients to develop a mutually beneficial relationship of trust and understanding with them. 

How Can Nurse Practitioners Undertake Successful Patient Recruitment in RPM

NPs should use consumer marketing techniques to recruit patients and form a relationship of understanding and trust with them. Referrals from trusted sources, such as clinicians and doctors, prove highly beneficial for nurse practitioners to engage patients in a remote patient monitoring program. 

Research shows that the primary motivators for patient recruitment include referrals from reliable sources, including nurses with existing relationships with patients, trusted caregivers, and the patient’s existing doctor. Engaging patients by offering them insight into the RPM program process and easing them through understanding the potential benefits of an RPM program works wonders in affirming that motivation. 

Nurse practitioners can also utilize proven consumer marketing techniques to ensure their RPM program stands out from the rest. It can also help them understand which patients they should recruit and how they should be recruited to understand the effective communication techniques for them. 

How Nurse Practitioners Can Set Up Their Practice With Remote Patient Monitoring 

Here are a few ways nurses can start their RPM program, opt for a suitable platform to manage their patient population, and scale it for healthcare. 

Recognizing Your Healthcare Requirements 

The first step in setting up your own RPM program is identifying the particular needs that your practice will fulfil. Basing your practice upon that, you can cope with several factors, including the necessity of opening up new avenues for revenue, managing a high hospital readmission issue, or dealing with patients with chronic conditions. 

Setting Up A Team 

The second critical step is engaging with care staff, fellow nurses, medical practitioners, physicians, and technicians to win them over for a suitable implementation of your RPM program. The size of your team depends upon the size of the healthcare practice you wish to run or the patient population you wish to target. 

Identifying Patients for Your RPM Program 

Pre-identification of eligible patients for your remote patient monitoring program is crucial, and you can do so in three primary ways: 

In-Person 

You can introduce your program to prospective patients by meeting them in person during their office visits and guaranteeing the best recruitment rate. 

Out-Reach Campaigns 

You can send letters on the merits and demerits of your RPM program to a potential list of eligible patients. 

Phone Calls 

You may also call the potential patients, explain your program to them, and invite them to join. 

Setting Objectives 

Goal setting can be carried out by keeping any of the following objectives in mind: 

Patient Health Outcomes 

You can set goals for patient health outcomes by identifying your patient categories, the particular health outcomes you wish to achieve, and the number of patients you can reach with your RPM program. 

Fiscal Growth 

Goal setting to pave the way for new revenue streams is crucial, so is looking for efficient ways to reduce cost through your remote patient monitoring program. 

Patient Experience 

Enhancement of patient experience involves setting goals to augment patient compliance, patient engagement, patient satisfaction, and patient-to-care-team ratio. 

Job Satisfaction 

It is pivotal to set objectives for provider satisfaction through your RPM program, which may include decreasing the staff turnover rate and allocation of staff time. This ensures that your care managers and staff perform their job conveniently, which may also lead to higher efficiency. 

Deciding If You Want To Buy or Lease RPM Equipment 

You can decide whether you wish to buy or lease RPM equipment by keeping your objectives, budget, and the size of the practice you want to manage in view. Although leasing RPM devices has a lower upfront expense and offers higher flexibility, purchasing the devices eliminates the obligations of long-term leasing contracts and reduces the overall expenditure. 

Delivery and Engagement 

Once your RPM program is ready, you should aim to compare the primary metrics regularly to identify your program’s shortcomings and rectify them immediately.