Page 1 - Case Studies in Telehealth Adoption Scaling Telehealth Program sLessons from Early Adopters
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Case Studies in Telehealth Adoption
January 2013
Scaling Telehealth Programs:
Lessons from Early Adopters
Andrew Broderick And dAvid LindemAn
The mission of The Commonwealth ABSTRACT: Remote patient monitoring (RPM)—like home teleheath and telemonitor-
Fund is to promote a high performance ing—can help improve coordination, improve patients’ experience of care, and reduce hos-
health care system. The Fund carries pital admissions and costs. Such technologies remotely collect, track, and transmit health
out this mandate by supporting
independent research on health care data from a patient’s home to a health care provider and can facilitate communication and
issues and making grants to improve help engage patients in the management of their own care. This synthesis brief offers find-
health care practice and policy. Support ings from case studies of three early RPM adopters: the Veterans Health Administration,
for this research was provided by Partners HealthCare, and Centura Health at Home. Each of the programs started as a pilot
The Commonwealth Fund. The views with the support of a small group of advocates who believed in the technology’s poten-
presented here are those of the authors tial for offering improved care for a targeted population. Early lessons include promoting
and not necessarily those of The
Commonwealth Fund or its directors, a culture of openness and preparedness; using a multidisciplinary team-based approach;
oficers, or staff. establishing leadership support; minimizing barriers to patient enrollment, like cost; and
including nonstandard measures, like patient experience and staff satisfaction, in program
evaluations.
For more information about this study, OVERVIEW
please contact: A lack of systematic care coordination contributes to a high prevalence of pre-
Andrew Broderick, M.A., M.B.A.
Codirector, Center for Innovation ventable rehospitalizations in the Medicare population. As the U.S. health care
and Technology in Public Health system looks to achieve the goals of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s
Public Health Institute
abroderick@phi.org Triple Aim—improving patients’ experience of care, improving the health of popu-
lations, and reducing the cost of health care—providers increasingly acknowledge
that patient-centered technologies can contribute toward the realization of those
goals. However, providers for the most part have little experience with such
technologies.
To learn more about new publications
when they become available, visit the Health care reforms provide an opportunity to replace current fragmented
Fund's website and register to receive and poorly coordinated care delivery practices with a more integrated model of
Fund email alerts.
Commonwealth Fund pub. 1654 care, supported by the use of technology-enabled innovations. While their imple-
Vol. 1 mentation into care practices can be disruptive to workflow and result in process
